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A GUIDE TO BIOGRAPHY 







LONGFELLOW 



A GUIDE 
TO BIOGRAPHY 

FOR YOUNG READERS 

AMERICAN— MEN OF MIND 

% BY 

BURTON E. STEVENSON 

7 
AUTHOR OF "a GUIDE TO BIOGRAPHY — MEN OF ACTION," 

"a SOLDIER OF VIRGINIA," ETC.; COMPILER OF " DAYS AND 

DEEDS — POETRY," " DAYS AND DEEDS— PROSE," ETC. 



New York 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 

1910 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAQE 

Longfellow ....... Frontispiece 

Hawthorne 28 

Emerson 44 

Greeley 48 

Stuart 92"' 

Booth 158*^ 

Agassiz 190 

Eliot 216^ 

Girard 232' 

Beecher 252 

Wanamaker 314 

Morse 336 



A GUIDE TO BIOGRAPHY 

AMERICAN — MEN OF MIND 



A GUIDE TO BIOGRAPHY 



CHAPTER I 

"MEN OF MIND" 

TN the companion volume of this series, "Men of 
-*■ Action," the attempt was made to give the es- 
sential facts of American history by sketching in 
broad outline the men who made that history — the 
discoverers, pioneers, presidents, statesmen, soldiers, 
and sailors — and describing the part which each of 
them played. 

It was almost like watching a great building grow 
under the hands of the workmen, this one adding a 
stone and that one adding another; but there was 
one great difference. For a building, the plans are 
made carefully beforehand, worked out to the small- 
est detail, and followed to the letter, so that every 
stone goes exactly where it belongs, and the work of 
all the men fits together into a complete and perfect 
whole. But when America was started, no one had 
more than the vaguest idea of what the finished 
result was to be; indeed, many questioned whether 
any enduring structure could be reared on a founda- 
tion such as ours. So there was much useless labor, 
one workman tearing down what another had built, 

11 



A Guide to Biography 

and only a few of them working with any clear vision 
of the future. 

The convention which adopted the Constitution of 
the United States may fairly be said to have fur- 
nished the first plan, and George Washington was the 
master-builder who laid the foundations in accord- 
ance with it. He did more than that, for the plan 
was only a mere outline; so Washington added such 
details as he found necessary, taking care always that 
they accorded with the plan of the founders. He 
lived long enough to see the building complete in 
all essential details, and to be assured that the foun- 
dation was a firm one and that the structure, which 
is called a Republic, would endure. 

All that has been done since his time has been to 
build on an addition now and then, as need arose, and 
to change the ornamentation to suit the taste of the 
day. At one time, it seemed that the whole struc- 
ture might be rent asunder and topple into ruins; 
but again there came a master-builder named Abra- 
ham Lincoln, and with the aid of a million devoted 
workmen who rallied to his call, he saved it. 

There have been men, and there are men to-day, 
who would attack the foundation were they per- 
mitted; but never yet have they got within effective 
striking distance. Others there are who have marred 
the simple and classic beauty of the building with 
strange excrescences. But these are only temporary, 
and the hand of time Avill sweep them all away. For 
the work of tearing down and building up is going 
forward to-day just as it has always done; and the 

12 



" Men of Mind " 

changes are sometimes for the better and sometimes 
for the worse; but, on the whole, the building grows 
more stately and more beautiful as the generations 
pass. 

It was the work of the principal laborers on this 
mighty edifice which we attempted to judge in " Men 
of Action," and this was a comparatively easy task, 
because the work stands out concretely for all to see, 
and, as far as essentials go, at least, we are all agreed 
as to what is good work and what is bad. But the 
task which is attempted in the present volume is a 
much more difiicult one, for here we are called upon 
to judge not deeds but thoughts — thoughts, that is, 
as translated into a novel, or a poem, or a statue, or 
a painting, or a theory of the universe. 

Nobody has ever yet been able to devise a uni- 
versal scale by which thoughts may be measured, nor 
any acid test to distinguish gold from dross in art 
and literature. So each person has to devise a scale 
of his own and do his measuring for himself; he has 
to apply to the things he sees and reads the acid test 
of his own intellect. And however imperfect this 
measuring and testing may be, it is the only sort 
which has any value for that particular person. In 
other words, unless you yourself find a poem or a 
painting great, it isn't great for you, however critics 
may extol it. So all the books about art and lit- 
erature and music are of value only as they improve 
the scale and perfect the acid test of the individual, 
so that the former measures more and more correctly, 
and the latter bites more and more surely through 

13 



A Guide to Biography 

the glittering veneer which seeks to disguise the dross 
beneath. 

It follows from all this that, since there are nearly 
as many scales as there are individuals, very few 
of them will agree exactly. Time, however, has a 
wonderful way of testing thoughts, of preserving 
those that are worthy, and of discarding those that 
are unworthy. Just how this is done nobody has 
ever been able to explain; but the fact remains that, 
somehow, a really great poem or painting or statue 
or theory lives on from age to age, long after the 
other products of its time have been forgotten. And 
if it is really great, the older it grows, the greater 
it seems. Shakespeare, to his contemporaries, was 
merely an actor and playwright like any one of a 
score of others; but, with the passing of years, he has 
become the most wonderful figure in the world's lit- 
erature. Rembrandt could scarcely make a living 
with his brush, industriously as he used it, and 
passed his days in misery, haunted by his creditors 
and neglected by the public; to-day we recognize in 
him one of the greatest artists who ever lived. Such 
instances are common enough, for genius often goes 
unrecognized until its possessor is dead ; just as many 
men are hailed as geniuses by their contemporaries, 
and promptly forgotten by the succeeding genera- 
tion. The touchstone of time infallibly separates the 
false and the true. 

Unfortunately, to American literature and art no 
such test can be applied, for they are less than a 
century old — scarcely out of swaddling clothes. The 

14 



" Men of Mind " 

greater portion of the product of our early years has 
long since been forgotten; but whether any of that 
which remains is really immortal will take another 
century or two to determine. So the only tests we 
can apply at present are those of taste and judgment, 
and these are anything but infallible. 

Especially is this true of literature. Somebody 
announced, not long ago, that " the foremost poet of 
a nation is that poet most widely read and truly loved 
by it," and added that, in this respect, Longfellow 
was easily first in America. No doubt many people 
will agree with this dictum; and, indeed, the test of 
popularity is difficult to disregard. But it is not at 
all a true test, as we can see easily enough if we 
attempt to apply it to art, or to music, or to public 
affairs. Popularity is no more a test of genius in 
a poet than in a statesman, and when we remember 
how far astray the popular will has sometimes led 
us in regard to politics, we may be inclined to regard 
with suspicion its judgments in regard to literature. 

The test of merit in literature is not so much wide 
appeal as intelligent appeal; the literature which 
satisfies the taste and judgment of cultured people 
is pretty certain to rank higher than that which is 
current among the uncultured. And so with art. 
Consequently, for want of something better, the gen- 
eral verdict of cultured people upon our literature 
and art has been followed in these pages. 

Two or three other classes of achievers have been 
grouped, for convenience, in this volume — scientists 
and educators, philanthropists and reformers, men 

15 



A Guide to Biography 

of affairs, actors and inventors — and it may be truly 
argued concerning some of them that they were 
more " men of action/' and less " men of mind " 
than many who were included in the former vol- 
ume. But all distinctions and divisions and classi- 
fications are more or less arbitrary; and there is no 
intention, in this one, to intimate that the " men of 
action " were not also " men of mind," or vice versa. 
The division has been made simply for convenience. 

These thumb-nail sketches are in no sense the 
result of original research. The material needed 
has been gathered from such sources as are avail- 
able in any well-equipped public library. An at- 
tempt has been made, however, to color the narrative 
with human interest, and to give it consecutiveness, 
though this has sometimes been very hard to do. 
But, even at the best, this is only a first book in the 
study of American art and letters, and is designed to 
serve only as a stepping-stone to more elaborate and 
comprehensive ones. 

There are several short histories of American lit- 
erature which will prove profitable and pleasant read- 
ing. Mr. W. P. Trent's is written with a refresh- 
ing humor and insight. The " American Men of 
Letters " series gives carefully written biographies 
of about twenty-five of our most famous authors — 
all that anyone need know about in detail. There 
is a great mass of other material on the shelves of 
every public library, which will take one as far as 
one may care to go. 

But the important thing in literature is to know 
16 



"Men of Mind" 

the man's work rather than his life. If his work is 
sound and helpful and inspiring, his life needn't 
bother us, however hopeless it may have been. The 
striking example of this, in American literature, is 
Edgar Allan Poe, whose fame, in this country, is 
just emerging from the cloud which his unfortunate 
career cast over it. The life of the man is of im- 
portance only as it helps you to understand his work. 
Most important of all is to create within yourself a 
liking for good books and a power of telling good 
from bad. This is one of the most important things 
in life, indeed; and Mr. John Macy points the way 
to it in his " Child's Guide to Reading." 

Only second to the power to appreciate good lit- 
erature is the power to appreciate good art. For 
the material in this volume the author is indebted 
largely to the excellent monographs by Mr. Samuel 
Isham and Mr. Lorado Taft on " American Paint- 
ing," and " American Sculpture." There are many 
guides to the study of art, among the best of them 
being Mr. Charles C. Caffin's '' Child's Guide to Pic- 
tures," " American Masters of Painting," " Amer- 
ican ]\rasters of Sculpture," and " How to Study 
Pictures "; Mr. John C. VanDyke's " How to Judge 
of a Picture," and " The Meaning of Pictures," and 
Mr. Jolm LaFarge's " Great Masters." In the study 
of art, as of literature, you will soon find that Amer- 
ica's place is as yet comparatively unimportant. 

For the chapter on "The Stage," Mr. William 
Winter's various volumes of biography and criticism 
have been drawn upon, more especially with refer- 

17 



A Guide to Biography 

ence to the actors of the " old school," which Mr, 
Winter admires so deeply. There are a number of 
books, besides these, which make capital reading — 
Clara Morris's " Life on the Stage," Joseph Jeffer- 
son's autobiography, Stoddart's " Recollections of a 
Player," and Henry Austin Clapp's " Reminiscences 
of a Dramatic Critic," among them. 

The material for the other chapters has been gath- 
ered from many sources, none of which is important 
enough to be mentioned here. Appleton's " Cyclo- 
pedia of American Biography " is a mine from which 
most of the facts concerning any American, prom- 
inent twenty years or more ago, may be dug; but it 
gives only the dry bones, so to speak. For more 
than that you must go to the individual biographies 
in your public library. 

If you live in a small town, the librarian will very 
probably be glad to permit you to look over the 
shelves yourself, as well as to give you such advice 
and direction as you may need. In the larger cities, 
this is, of course, impossible, to say nothing of the 
fact that you would be lost among the thousands of 
books on the shelves. But you will find a children's 
librarian whose business and pleasure it is to help 
children to the right books. If this book helps you 
to form the library habit, and gives you an incentive 
to the further study of art and literature, it will more 
than fulfill its mission. 



18 



CHAPTER II 
WRITERS OF PROSE 

IT is true of American literature that it can boast 
no name of commanding genius — no dramatist to 
rank with Shakespeare, no poet to rank with Keats, 
no novelist to rank with Thackeray, to take names 
only from our cousins oversea — and yet it displays 
a high level of talent and a notable richness of 
achievement. Literature requires a background of his- 
tory and tradition; more than that, it requires leisure. 
A new nation spends its energies in the struggle for 
existence, and not until that existence is assured do 
its finer minds need to turn to literature for self- 
expression. As Poor Richard put it, " Well done is 
better than well said," and so long as great things 
are pressing to be done, great men will do their 
writing on the page of history, and not on papyrus, 
or parchment, or paper. 

So, in the early history of America, the settlers in 
the new country were too busily employed in fight- 
ing for a foothold, in getting food and clothing, in 
keeping body and soul together, to have any time 
for the fine arts. Most of the K^ew England divines 
tried their hands at limping and hob-nail verse, but 
prior to the Revolution, American literature is re- 

19 



A Guide to Biography 

mar'knWc only for its aridity, its lack of inspiration 
and its portentous dulness. In these respects it may 
proudly claim never to have been surpassed in the 
history of mankind. In fact, American literature, 
as sucli, may be said to date from 1800, Avhon Wash- 
ington Irving gave to the world his inimitable " His- 
tory of New York." It struck a new and wholly 
original note, Milh a sureness bespeaking a master's 
touch. 

AVhere did Irving get that touch? That is a ques- 
tion M'hich one asks vainly concerning any master of 
literature, for genius is a thing which no theory can 
explain. It appears in the most unexpected places. 
An obscure Corsican lieutenant becomes Emperor of 
France, arbiter of Europe, and one of the three or 
four really great commanders of history; a tinker in 
Bedford County jail writes the greatest allegory in 
literature; and the son of two mediocre players 
develops into the first figure in American letters. 
Conversely, genius seldom appears where one would 
naturall}^ look for it. Seldom indeed does genius 
beget genius. It expends itself in its work. 

Certainly there was no reason to suppose that any 
child of AVilliam Irving and Sarah Sanders would 
develop genius even of the second order, more espe- 
cially since they had already ten who w^re just 
average boys and girls. Xor did the eleventh, who 
was christened AVashington, show, in his youth, any 
glimpse of the eagle's feather. 

Born in 1783, in New York City, a delicate child 
and one whose life was more than once despaired of, 

20 



WritcrH of Proao 

Wiisliiiigton Trvinj;' received lilllc foi-iiiiil scliooling, 
but WHS allowed to aiinisc liiiusclf as lie j)lcas(Hl by 
waiidoriiig up aiul down the Hudson and kccpinj:^ aa 
uiucb as possible in llie o])en air. It was during 
these years that he gained that intimate knowledge 
of the irndson River A''alley of wliich lie was to make 
such good use lalei- on. lie still rtMruiined dedicate, 
however, and at the age of twcMity was sent to 
Kuro|)e. The air of l''rance and Italy ])rove(l to be 
just what he n<'eded, and he soon developed into a 
fairly I'obust man. 

With health r(>gained, lui returned, two years 
later, to Am(>rica, and got himself admitted to the 
bar. AV'hy he should have gone to this trouble is a 
mystery, for Ik^ never r(>ally seriously tried to practise 
law. Instead, he was occupying himself with a serio- 
connc history of New York, which grew under his 
pen into as successful an example of true and sus- 
tain(Ml humor as our literature ])0sscsses. The subject 
was one exactly suited to Irving's genius, and he 
allowed his fancy to have free ]day about the pic- 
turestpm personalities of Wouter Van Twiller, and 
VVandle Schoonhovon, and General Van PoU'en- 
bni'gh, in whose very names there is a comic sugges- 
tion. When it appeared, in 1809, it took the town 
by storm. 

Irving, indeed, had created a legend. The history, 
supposed to have been written by one Diculrich 
Knickerbocker, gives to the story of New York just 
the touch of fancy and symbolism it needed. For all 
time, New York will remain the Knickerbocker City. 

21 



A Guide to Biography 

The book revealed a genuine master of kindly satire, 
and established its author's reputation beyond pos- 
sibility of question. Perhaps the surest proof of its 
worth is the fact that it is read to-day as widely and 
enjoyed as thoroughly as it ever was. 

It is strange that Irving did not at once adopt 
letters as a profession; but instead of that, he en- 
tered his brothers' business house, which was in a 
decaying condition, and to which he devoted nine 
harassed and anxious years, before it finally failed. 
That failure decided him, and he cast in his lot 
finally with the fortunes of literature. He was at 
that time thirty-five years of age — an age at which 
most men are settled in life, with an established 
profession, and a complacent readiness to drift on into 
middle age. 

Rarely has any such choice as Irving's received 
so prompt and triumphant a vindication, for a year 
later appeared the " Sketch Book," with its " Rip 
Van Winkle," its " Legend of Sleepy Hollow " and 
" The Spectre Bridegroom " — to mention only three 
of the thirty-three items of its table of contents — 
which proved the author to be not only a humorist 
of the first order, but an accomplished critic, essayist 
and short-story writer. The publication of this book 
marked the culmination of his literary career. It 
is his most characteristic and important work, and 
on it and his " History," his fame rests. 

He lived for forty years thereafter, a number of 
which were spent in Spain, first as secretary of lega- 
tion, and afterwards as United States minister to that 

22 



Writers of Prose 

country. It was during these years that he gathered 
the materials for his " Life of Columbus," his " Con- 
quest of Granada," and his " Alhambra," which has 
been called with some justice, " The Spanish Sketch 
Book." A tour of the western portion of the United 
States resulted also in three books, " The Adventures 
of Captain Bonneville," " Astoria," and " A Tour 
on the Prairies." His last years were spent at " Sun- 
nyside," his home at Tarry town, on the Hudson, 
where he amused himself by writing biographies of 
Mahomet, of Goldsmith, and of George Washington. 

All of this was, for the most part, what is called 
"hack work," and his turning to it proves that he 
himself was aware that his fount of inspiration had 
run dry. This very fact marks his genius as of the 
second order, for your real genius — your Shakes- 
peare or Browning or Thackeray or Tolstoi — never 
runs dry, but finds welling up within him a perpetual 
and self-renewing stream of inspiration, fed by 
thought and observation and every-day contact with 
the world. 

Irving's closing years were rich in honor and affec- 
tion, and found him unspoiled and uncorrupted. He 
was always a shy man, to whom publicity of any 
kind was most embarrassing; and yet he managed to 
be on the most intimate of terms with his time, and 
to possess a wide circle of friends who were devoted 
to him. 

Such was the career of America's first successful 
man of letters. For, strangely enough, he had suc- 
ceeded in making a good living with his pen. More 

23 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

than that, his natural and lambent humor, his charm 
and grace of style, and a literary power at once 
broad and genuine, had won him a place, if not 
among the crowned heads, at least mong the princes 
of literature, side by side with Goldsmith and Addi- 
son. Thackeray called him " the first ambassador 
whom the New World of letters sent to the Old," 
and from the very first he identified American lit- 
erature with purity of life and elevation of char- 
acter, with kindly humor and grace of manner — 
qualities which it has never lost. 

Two years after the appearance of the " Sketch 
Book," another star suddenly flamed out upon the 
literary horizon, and for a time quite eclipsed Irving 
in brilliancy. It waned somewhat in later years, but, 
though we have come to see that it lacks the purity 
and gentle beauty of its rival, it has still found a 
place among the brightest in our literary heaven — 
where, indeed, only one or two of the first magnitude 
shine. J. Fenimore Cooper was, like Irving, a prod- 
uct of New York state, his father laying out the 
site of Cooperstown, on Lake Otsego, and movmg 
there from New Jersey in 1790, when his son was 
only a year old. James, as the boy was known, was 
the eleventh of twelve children — another instance of 
a single swan amid a flock of ducklings. 

Cooperstown was at that time a mere outpost of 
civilization in the wilderness, and it was in this 
wilderness that Cooper's boyhood was passed. And 
just as Irving's boyhood left its impress on his work, 
so did Coojjer's in even greater degree. Mighty 

24 



Writers of Prose 

woods, broken only here and there by tiny clear- 
ings, stretched around the little settlement; In- 
dians and frontiersmen, hunters, traders, trappers — 
all these were a part of the boy's daily life. He 
grew learned in the lore of the woods, and laid up 
unconsciously the stores from which he was after- 
wards to draw. 

At the age of eleven, he was sent to a private 
school at Albany, and three years later entered Yale. 
But he had the true woodland spiiit; he preferred 
the open air to the lecture-room, and was so careless 
in his attendance at classes that, in his third year, 
he was dismissed from college. There is some ques- 
tion whether this was a blessing or the reverse. No 
doubt a thorough college training would have made 
Cooper incapable of the loose and turgid style which 
characterizes all his novels ; but, on the other hand, 
he left college to enter the navy, and there gained 
that knowledge of seamanship and of the ocean which 
make his sea stories the best of their kind that have 
ever been written. His sea career was cut short, just 
before the opening of the war of 1812, by his mar- 
riage into an old Tory family, who insisted that he 
resign from the service. He did so, and entered 
upon the quiet life of a well-to-do country gentle- 
man. 

For seven or eight years, he showed no desire nor 
aptitude to be anything else. He had never written 
anything for publication, had never felt any impulse 
to do so, and perhaps never would have felt such an 
impulse but for an odd accident. Tossing aside a 

25 



A Guide to Biography 

dull British novel, one day, he remarked to his wife 
that he could easily write a better story himself, 
and she laughingly dared him to try. The result was 
" Precaution," than which no British novel could be 
duller. But Cooper, finding the work of writing con- 
genial, kept at it, and the next year saw the publica- 
tion of " The Spy," the first American novel worthy 
of the name. By mere accident, Cooper had found 
his true vein, the story of adventure, and his true 
field in the scenes with which he was himself familiar. 
In Harvey Birch, the spy, he added to the world's 
gallery of fiction the first of his three great char- 
acters, the other two being, of course, Long Tom 
Coffin and Leatherstocking. 

The book was an immediate success, and was fol- 
lowed by " The Pioneers " and " The Pilot," both 
remarkable stories, the former visualizing for the 
first time the life of the forest, the latter for the 
first time the life of the sea. Let us not forget that 
Cooper was himself a pioneer and blazed the trails 
which so many of his successors have tried to follow. 
If the trail he made was rough and difficult, it at 
least possesses the merits of vigor and pristine 
achievement. " The Spy," " The Pioneers," and 
" The Pilot " established Cooper's reputation not only 
in this country, but in England and France. He be- 
came a literary lion, with the result that his head, 
never very firmly set upon his shoulders, was com- 
pletely turned; he set himself up as a mentor and 
critic of both continents, and while his successive 
novels continued to be popular, he himself became 

26 



Writers of Prose 

involved in numberless personal controversies, which 
embittered his later years. 

The result of these quarrels was apparent in his 
work, which steadily decreased in merit, so that, of 
the thirty-three novels that he wrote, not over twelve 
are, at this day, worth reading. But those twelve 
paint, as no other novelist has ever painted, life in 
the forest and on the ocean, and however we may 
quarrel with his wooden men and women, his faults 
of taste and dreary wastes of description, there is 
about them some intangible quality which compels 
the interest and grips the imagination of school-boy 
and gray-beard alike. He splashed his paint on a 
great canvas with a whitewash brush, so to speak; it 
will not bear minute examination; but at a distance, 
with the right perspective, it fairly glows with life. 
No other American novelist has added to fiction 
three such characters as those we have mentioned; 
into those he breathed the breath of life — the su- 
preme achievement of the novelist. 

For seventeen years after the publication of " The 
Spy," Cooper had no considerable American rival. 
Then, in 1837, the publication of a little volume 
called " Twice-Told Tales " marked the advent of a 
greater than he. No one to-day seriously questions 
Nathaniel Hawthorne's right to first place among 
American novelists, and in the realm of the short 
story he has only one equal, Edgar Allan Poe. 

We shall speak of Poe more at length as a poet; 
but it is curious and interesting to contrast these 
two men, contemporaries, and the most significant 

27 



A Guide to Biography 

figures in the literature of their country — Poe, an 
actor's child, an outcast, fighting in the dark with 
the balance against him, living a tragic life and dying 
a tragic death, leaving to America the purest lyrics 
and most compelling tales ever produced within her 
borders; Hawthorne, a direct descendant of the Pur- 
itans, a recluse and a dreamer, his delicate genius 
developing gradually, marrying most happily, lead- 
ing an idyllic family life, winning success and sub- 
stantial recognition, which grew steadily until the 
end of his career, and which has, at least, not dimin- 
ished — could any contrast be more complete? 

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a direct descendant of 
that William Hawthorne who came from England 
in 1630 with John Winthrop in the "Arabella," 
and was born at Salem, Massachusetts, the family's 
ancestral home, in 1804. He was a classmate of 
Longfellow at Bowdoin College, graduating without 
especial distinction, and spending the twelve succeed- 
ing years at Salem, living a secluded life in accord- 
ance with his abnormally shy and sensitive disposi- 
tion. He was already resolved on the literary life, 
and spent those years in solitary writing. The result 
was a morbid novel, " Fanshawe," and a series of 
short stories, none of which attracted especial atten- 
tion or gave indication of more than average talent. 
Not until 1837 did he win any measure of success, 
but that year saw the publication of the first series 
of " Twice-Told Tales," which, by their charm and 
delicacy, won him many readers. 

Even at that, he found the profession of letters 
28 




HAWTHORNE 



Writers of Prose 

so unprofitable that he was glad to accept a position 
as weigher and ganger at the Boston custom-house, 
but he lost the place two years later by a change 
in administration; tried, for a while, living with the 
Transcendentalists at Brook Farm, and finally, tak- 
ing a leap into the unknown, married and settled 
down in the old manse at Concord. It was a most 
fortunate step; his wife proved a real inspiration, 
and in the months that followed, he wrote the sec- 
ond series of " Twice-Told Tales," and " Mosses from 
an Old Manse," which mark the culmination of his 
genius as a teller of talcs. 

Four years later, the political pendulum swung 
back again, and Hawthorne was offered the surveyor- 
ship of the custom-house at Salem, accepted it, and 
moved his family back to his old home. He held 
the position for four years, completed his first great 
romance, and in 1850 gave to the world " The Scarlet 
Letter," perhaps the most significant and vital novel 
produced by any American. Hawthorne had, at last, 
" found himself." A year later came " The House 
of the Seven Gables," and then, in quick succes- 
sion, " Grandfather's Chair," " The Wonder Book," 
" The Snow-Image," " The Blithedale Romance," and 
" Tanglewood Tales." 

A queer product of his pen, at this time, was a 
life of Franklin Pierce, the Democratic candidate for 
the Presidency; and when Pierce was elected, he 
showed his gratitude by offering Hawthorne the con- 
sulship at Liverpool, a lucrative position which Haw- 
thorne accepted and which he held for four years. 

29 



A Guide to Biography 

Two years on the continent followed, and in 1860, 
he returned home, his health breaking and his mind 
unsettled, largely by the prospect of the Civil War 
into which the country was drifting. lie found 
himself unable to write, failed rapidly, and the end 
came in the spring of 1864. 

Of American novelists, Hawthorne alone shows 
that sustained power and high artistry belonging to 
the masters of fiction; and yet his novels have not 
that universal appeal which belongs to the few really 
great ones of the world. Hawthorne was supremely 
the interpreter of old New England, a subject of 
comparatively little interest to other peoples, since 
old New England was distinguished principally by a 
narrow spiritual conflict which other peoples find 
difficult to understand. The subject of " The Scarlet 
Letter " is, indeed, one of universal appeal, and is, in 
some form, the theme of nearly all great novels; but 
its setting narrowed this appeal, and Hawthorne's 
treatment of his theme, symbolical rather than simple 
and concrete, narrowed it still further. Yet with all 
that, it possesses that individual charm and subtlety 
which is apparent, in greater or less degree, in all 
of his imaginative work. 

Contemporary with Hawthorne, and surviving him 
by a few years, was another novelist who had, in his 
day, a tremendous reputation, but who is now almost 
forgotten, William Gilmore Simms. We shall con- 
sider him — for he was also a maker of verse — in 
the next chapter, in connection with his fellow-towns- 
men, Henry Timrod and Paul Hamilton Hayne. So 

30 



Writers of Prose 

we pause here only to remark that the obscurity 
which enfolds him is more dense than he de- 
serves, and that anyone who likes frontier fiction, 
somewhat in the manner of Cooper, will enjoy 
reading " The Yemassee," the best of Simms's 
books. 

Hawthorne stands so far above the novelists who 
come after him that one rather hesitates to mention 
them at all. With one, or possibly two, exceptions, 
the work of none of them gives promise of per- 
manency — so far as can be judged, at least, in look- 
ing at work so near that it has no perspective. 
Prophesying has always been a risky business, and 
will not be attempted here. But, whether immortal 
or not, there are some five or six novelists whose 
work is in some degree significant, and who deserve 
at least passing study. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe is one of these. Born in 
1811, the daughter of Lyman Beecher, and perhaps 
the most brilliant member of a brilliant family, be- 
ginning to write while still a child, and continuing 
to do so until the end of her long life, Mrs. Stowe's 
name is nevertheless connected in the public mind 
with a single book, " Uncle Tom's Cabin," a book 
which has probably been read by more people than 
any other ever written by an American author. Mrs. 
Stowe had lived for some years in Cincinnati and 
had visited in Kentucky, so that she had some sur- 
face knowledge of slavery; she was, of course, by 
birth and breeding, an abolitionist, and so when, 
early in 1851, an anti-slavery paper called the " Na- 

31 



A Guide to Biography 

tional Era " was started at Washington, she agreed 
to furnish a " continued story." 

The first chapter appeared in April, and the story 
ran through the year, attracting little attention. But 
its publication in book form marked the beginning 
of an immense popularity and an influence probably 
greater than that of any other novel ever written. It 
crystallized anti-slavery sentiment, it was read all 
over the world, it was dramatized and gave countless 
thousands their first visualization of the slave traffic. 
That her presentation of it was in many respects 
untrue has long since been admitted, but she was 
writing a tract and naturally made her case as strong 
as she could. From a literary standpoint, too, the 
book is full of faults; but it is alive with an emo- 
tional sincerity which sweeps everything before it. 
She wrote other books, but none of them is read 
to-day, except as a matter of duty or curiosity. 

And let us pause here to point out that the under- 
lying principle of every great work of art, whether 
a novel or poem or painting or statue, is sincerity. 
Without sincerity it cannot be great, no matter how 
well it is done, with what care and fidelity; and with 
sincerity it may often attain greatness without per- 
fection of form, just as " Uncle Tom's Cabin " did. 
But to lack sincerity is to lack soul; it is a body 
without a spirit. 

We must refer, too, to the most distinctive Amer- 
ican humorist of the last half century, Samuel Lang- 
horne Clemens — " Mark Twain." Born in Missouri, 
knocking about from pillar to post in his early years, 

32 



Writers of Prose 

serving as pilot's boy and afterwards as pilot on a 
Mississippi steamboat, as printer, editor, and what 
not, but finally " finding himself " and making an 
immense reputation by the publication of a burlesque 
book of European travel, " Innocents Abroad," he 
followed it up with such widely popular stories as 
" Tom Sawyer," " Huckleberry Finn," " The Prince 
and the Pauper," and many others, in some of which, 
at least, there seems to be an element of permanency. 
" Huckleberry Finn," indeed, has been hailed as 
the most distinctive work produced in America — an 
estimate which must be accepted with reservations. 

Three living novelists have contributed to Amer- 
ican letters books of insight and dignity — William 
Dean Ho wells, George W. Cable and Henry James. 
Mr. Howells has devoted himself to careful and pains- 
taking studies of American life, and has occasionally 
struck a note so true that it has found wide apprecia- 
tion. The same thing may be said of Mr, Cable's 
stories of the South, and especially of the Creoles 
of Louisiana; while Mr. James, perhaps as the result 
of his long residence abroad, has ranged over a wider 
field, and has chosen to depict the evolution of char- 
acter by thought rather than by deed, in his early 
work showing a rare insight. Of the three, he seems 
most certain of a lasting reputation. 

Others of less importance have made some special 
corner of the country theirs, and possess a sort of 
squatter-right over it. To Bret Harte belongs mid- 
century California; to Mary Noailles Murfree, the 
Tennessee mountains; to James Lane Allen and John 

33 



A Guide to Biography 

Fox, present-day Kentucky; to Mary Jolinston, co- 
lonial Virginia; to Ellen Glasgow, present-day Vir- 
ginia; to Stewart Edward White, the great north- 
west. Others cultivate a field peculiar to themselves. 
Frank R. Stockton is w^himsically humorous, Edith 
Wharton cynically dissective; Mary Wilkins Free- 
man is most at home with rural New England char- 
acter; and Thomas Nelson Page has done his best 
work in the South of reconstruction days. 

But of the great mass of fiction being written in 
America to-day, little is of value as literature. It 
is designed for the most part as an amusing occupa- 
tion for idle hours. Read some of it, by all means, 
if you enjoy it, since " all work and no play makes 
Jack a dull boy"; but remember that it is only the 
sweetmeat that comes at the end of the meal, and 
for sustenance, for the bread and butter of the lit- 
erary diet, you must read the older books that are 
worth while. 

It may be questioned whether America has pro- 
duced any poet or novelist or essayist of the very 
first rank, but, in another branch of letters, four 
names appear, which stand as high as any on the 
scroll. The writing of history is not, of course, pure 
literature; it is semi-creative rather than creative; 
and yet, at its best, it demands a high degree of 
imaginative insight. It appears at its best in the 
works of Prescott, Motley, Bancroft and Parkman. 

George Bancroft was, of this quartette, the most 
widely known half a century ago, because he chose 

34 



Writers of Prose 

as his theme the history of America, and because he 
was himself for many years prominent in the polit- 
ical life of the country. Born in Massachusetts in 
1800, graduating from Harvard, and, after a course 
of study in Germany, resolving to be a historian, 
he returned to America and began work on his his- 
tory, the first volume of which appeared in 1834. 
Three years later, came the second volume, and in 
1840, the third. 

Glowing with national spirit as they did, they at- 
tracted public attention to him, and he was soon 
drawn into politics. During the next twelve years he 
held several government positions, among them Sec- 
retary of the Navy and Minister to England, which 
gave him access to great masses of historical docu- 
ments. It was not until 1852 that his fourth volume 
appeared, then five more followed at comparatively 
frequent intervals. Again politics interrupted. He 
was sent as Minister to Prussia and later to the 
German Empire, again largely increasing his store 
of original documents, with which, toward the last, 
he seems to have been fairly overburdened. In 
1874, he published his tenth volume, bringing his 
narrative through the Revolution, and eight years 
later, the last two dealing with the adoption of the 
Constitution. His last years were spent in revising 
and correcting this monumental work. 

It is an inspiring record — a life devoted consist- 
ently to one great work, and that work the service 
of one's country, for such Bancroft's really was. 
Every student of colonial and revolutionary America 

35 



A Guide to Biography 

must turn to him, and while his history has long 
since ceased to be generally read, it maintains an 
honored place among every collection of books deal- 
ing with America. It is easily first among the old- 
school histories as produced by such men as Hildreth, 
Tucker, Palfrey and Sparks. 

At the head of the other school, which has been 
called cosmopolitan because it sought its subjects 
abroad rather than at home, stands William Hickling 
Prescott. Of this school, Washington Irving may 
fairly be said to have been the pioneer. We have 
seen how his residence in Spain turned his attention 
to the history of that country and resulted in three 
notable works. Prescott, however, was a historian 
by forethought and not by accident. Before his 
graduation from Harvard, he had determined to lead 
a literary life modelled upon that of Edward Gibbon. 
His career was almost wrecked at the outset by an 
unfortunate accident which so impaired his sight that 
he was unable to read, or to write except with the 
assistance of a cumbrous machine. That any man, 
laboring under such a disability, should yet persevere 
in pursuing the rocky road of the historian seems 
almost unbelievable; yet that is just what Prescott 
did. 

Let us tell the story of that accident. It was 
while he was at Harvard, in his junior year. One 
day after dinner, in the Commons Hall, some of the 
boys started a rude frolic. Prescott took no part in 
it, but just as he was leaving, a great commotion 
behind him caused him to turn quickly, and a hard 

36 



Writers of Prose 

piece of bread, thrown undoubtedly at random, 
struck him squarely and with great force in the left 
eye. He fell unconscious, and never saw out of that 
eye again. Worse than that, his other eye soon 
grew inflamed, and became almost useless to him, 
besides causing him, from time to time, the most 
acute suffering. But in spite of all this, he persisted 
in his determination to be a historian. 

After careful thought, he chose for his theme that 
period of Spanish history dominated by Ferdinand 
and Isabella, and went to work. Documents were 
collected, an assistant read to him for hours at a 
time, notes were taken, and the history painfully 
pushed forward. The result was a picturesque nar- 
rative which was at once successful both in Europe 
and America; and, thus encouraged, Prescott selected 
another romantic theme, the conquest of Mexico, for 
his next work. Following this came the history of 
the conquest of Peru, and finally a history of the 
reigTi of Philip II, upon which he was at work, when 
a paralytic stroke ended his career. 

Prescott was fortunate not only in his choice of 
subjects, but in the possession of a picturesque and 
fascinating style, which has given his histories a 
remarkable vogue. Fault has been found with him 
on the ground of historical inaccuracy, but such 
criticism is, for the most part, unjustified. His 
thoroughness, his judgment, and his critical faculty 
stand unimpeached, and place him very near the 
head of American historians. 

Prescott's successor, in more than one sense, was 
37 



Writers of Prose 

The last of this noteworthy group of historians, 
Francis Parkman, is also, in many respects, the great- 
est. He combined the virtues of all of them, and 
added for himself methods of research which have 
never been surpassed. Through it all, too, he bat- 
tled against a persistent ill-health, which unfitted 
him for work for months on end, and, even at the 
best, would permit his reading or writing only a few 
minutes at a time. 

Like the others, Parkman was bom in Boston, 
and, as a boy, was so delicate that he was allowed 
to run wild in the country, acquiring a love of nature 
which is apparent in all his books. In search of 
health, he journeyed westward from St. Louis, in 
1846, living with Indians and trappers and gaining 
a minute knowledge of their ways. The results of 
this journey were embodied in a modest little vol- 
ume called " The Oregon Trail," which remains the 
classic source of information concerning the far West 
at that period. 

Upon his return to the East, he settled down in 
earnest to the task which he had set himself — a his- 
tory, in every phase, of the struggle between France 
and England for the possession of the North Amer- 
ican continent. Years were spent in the collection 
of material — and in 1865 appeared his " Pioneers 
of France in the New World," followed at periods 
of a few years by the other books completing the 
series, which ends with the story of Montcalm and 
Wolfe. 

The series is a masterpiece of interpretative his- 
39 



A Guide to Biography 

Jolin Lothrop Motley. A Bostonian and Harvard 
man, well-trained, after one or two imsnccessfiil 
ventures in fiction, be turned his attention to history, 
and in 1856 completed his " Rise of the Dutch 
Republic," for which he could not find a publisher. 
He finally issued it at his own expense, with no little 
inward trembling, but it was at once successful and 
seventeen thousand copies of it were sold in England 
alone during the first year. It received unstinted 
praise, and Motley at once proceeded with his " His- 
tory of the United Netherlands." The opening of 
the Civil War, however, recalled his attention to his 
native land, he was drawn into politics, and did not 
complete his history until 1868. Six years later 
appeared his "John of Barneveld"; but his health 
was giving way and the end came in 187Y. 

In brilliancy, dramatic instinct and power of pic- 
turesque narration, Motley was Prescott's equal, if 
not his superior. The glow and fervor of his nar- 
rative have never been surpassed; his characters live 
and breathe; he was thoroughly in sympathy with 
his subject and found a personal pleasure in ex- 
alting his heroes and unmasking his villains. But 
there was his weakness; for often, instead of the 
impartial historian, he became a partisan of this 
cause or that, and painted his heroes whiter and his 
villains blacker than they really were. In spite of 
that, or perhaps because of it — because of the indi- 
vidual and intensely earnest personal point of view 
— his histories are as absorbing and fascinating as 
any in the world. 

38 



A Guide to Biography 

tory. Every phase of the struggle for the continent 
is described in minute detail and with the intimate 
touch of perfect knowledge; every actor in the great 
drama is presented with incomparable vividness, and 
its scenes are painted with a color and atmosphere 
worthy of Prescott or Motley, and with absolute 
accuracy. His work satisfies at once the student 
and the lover of literature, standing almost unique in 
this regard. His flexible and charming style is a 
constant joy; his power of analysis and presentment 
a constant wonder; and throughout his work there 
is a freshness of feeling, an air of the open, at once 
delightful and stimulating. He said the last word 
concerning the period which his histories cover, and 
has lent to it a fascination and absorbing interest 
which no historian has surpassed. The boy or girl 
who has not read Parkman's histories has missed one 
of the greatest treats which literature has to offer. 

Other historians there are who have done good 
service to American letters and whose work is out- 
ranked only by the men we have already mentioned 
— John Bach McMaster, whose " History of the Peo- 
ple of the United States " is still uncompleted; James 
Ford Rhodes, who has portrayed the Civil War 
period with admirable exhaustiveness and accuracy; 
Justin Winsor, Woodrow Wilson, William M. Sloane, 
and John Fiske. John Fiske's work, which deals 
wholly with the different periods of American his- 
tory, is especially suited to young people because of 
its simplicity and directness, and because, while ac- 
curate, it is not overburdened with detail. 

40 



Writers of Prose 

We have said that, during the Colonial period of 
American history, most of the New England divines 
devoted a certain amount of attention to the com- 
position of creaking verse. More than that, they 
composed histories, biographies and numberless works 
of a theological character, which probably constitute 
the dullest mass of reading ever produced upon this 
earth. The Revolution stopped this flood — if any- 
thing so dry can be called a flood — and when the 
Revolution ended, public thought was for many 
years occupied with the formation of the new nation. 
But in the second quarter of the nineteenth century 
there arose in New England a group of writers who 
are known as Transcendentalists, and who produced 
one of the most important sections of American lit- 
erature. 

Transcendentalism is a long word, and it is rather 
diflicult to define, but, to put it as briefly as pos- 
sible, it was a protest against narrowness in intel- 
lectual life, a movement for broader culture and for 
a freer spiritual life. It took a tremendous grip on 
New England, beginning about 1830, and kept it 
for nearly forty years; for New England has always 
been more or less provincial — provincialism being the 
habit of measuring everything by one inadequate 
standard. 

The high priest of the Transcendental movement 
was Amos Bronson Alcott, bom on a Connecticut 
farm in 1799, successively in youth a clockmaker, 
peddler and book-agent, and finally driven by dire 
necessity to teaching school. But there could be no 

41 



A Guide to Biography 

Buccess at school-teaching for a man the most ec- 
centric of his day — a mystic, a follower of Oriental 
philosophy, a non-resistant, an advocate of woman 
suffrage, an abolitionist, a vegetarian, and heaven 
knows what besides. So in the end, he was sold 
out, and removed with his family to Concord, where 
he developed into a sort of impractical idealist, hold- 
ing Orphic conversations and writing scraps of specu- 
lation and criticism, and living in the clouds gen- 
erally. 

Life would have been far less easy for him but 
for the development of an unexpected talent in one 
of his daughters, Louisa May Alcott. From her 
sixteenth year, Louisa Alcott had been writing for 
publication, but with little success, although every 
dollar she earned was welcome to a family so poor 
that the girls sometimes thought of selling their hair 
to get a little money. She also tried to teach, and 
finally, in 1862, went to Washington as a volunteer 
nurse and labored for many months in the military 
hospitals. The letters she wrote to her mother and 
sisters were afterwards collected in a book called 
" Hospital Sketches," At last, at the suggestion of 
her publishers, she undertook to write a girls' story. 
The result was " Little Women," which sprang al- 
most instantly into a tremendous popularity, and 
which at once put its author out of reach of 
want. 

Other children's stories, scarcely less famous, fol- 
lowed in quick succession, forming a series which 
has never been equalled for long-continued vogue. 

42 



Writers of Prose 

Few children who read at all have failed to read 
" Little Men," " Little Women," " An Old-Fashioned 
Girl," " Eight Cousins," and " Rose in Bloom," to 
mention only five of them, and edition after edition 
has been necessary to supply a demand which shows 
no sign of lessening. The stories are, one and all, 
sweet and sincere and helpful, and while they are 
not in any sense literature, they are, at least, an 
interesting contribution to American letters. 

But to return to the Transcendentalists. 

The most picturesque figure of the group was 
Margaret Fuller. Starting as a morbid and senti- 
mental girl, her father's death seems suddenly to 
have changed her, at the age of twenty-five, into a 
talented and thoughtful woman. Her career need 
not be considered in detail here, since it was signif- 
icant more from the inspiration she gave others than 
from any achievement of her own. She proved 
herself a sympathetic critic, if not a catholic and 
authoritative one, and a pleasing and suggestive 
essayist. 

What she might have become no one can tell, 
for her life was cut short at the fortieth year. She 
had spent some years in Italy, in an epoch of revolu- 
tions, into which she entered heart and soul. A 
romantic marriage, in 1847, with the Marquis Ossoli, 
served further to identify her with the revolutionary 
cause, and when it tumbled into ruins, she and her 
husband escaped from Rome and started for Amer- 
ica. Their ship encountered a terrific storm off 
Long Island, was driven ashore, broken to pieces 

43 



A Guide to Biography 

by the waves, and both she and her husband were 
drowned. 

By far the greatest of the Transcendental group 
and one of the most original figures in American lit- 
erature was Ralph Waldo Emerson — a figure, indeed, 
in many ways unique in all literature. Born in 
Boston in 1803, the son of a Unitarian clergyman 
and a member of a large and sickly family, he fol- 
lowed the predestined path through Harvard College, 
graduating with no especial honors, entered the min- 
istry, and served as pastor of the Second Church 
of Boston until 1832. Then, finding himself ill at 
ease in the position, he resigned, and, settling at 
Concord, turned to lecturing, first on scientific sub- 
jects and then on manners and morals. His reputa- 
tion grew steadily, and, especially in the generation 
younger than himself, he awakened the deepest en- 
thusiasm. 

In 1836, the publication of a little volume called 
" Nature " gave conclusive evidence of his talent, 
and, followed as it was by his " Essays," " Repre- 
sentative Men," and " Conduct of Life," established 
his reputation as seer, interpreter of nature, poet and 
moralist — a reputation which has held its own against 
the assaults of time. 

And yet no personality could be more puzzling or 
elusive. He v/as at once attractive and repulsive — 
there was a certain line which no one crossed, a 
charmed circle in which he dwelt alone. There was 
about him a certain coldness and detachment, a self- 
sufficiency, and a prudence which held him back 

44 







EMERSON 



Writers of Prose 

from giving himself unreservedly to any cause. He 
lacked heart and temperament. He was a homely, 
shrewd and cold-blooded Yankee, to put it plainly. 
Yet, with all that, he was a serene and benignant 
figure, of an inspiring optimism, a fine patriotism, 
and profound intellect — a stimulator of the best in 
man. Upon this basis, probably, his final claim to 
memory will rest. 

Another Transcendental eccentric with more than 
a touch of genius was Henry David Thoreau, and 
it is noteworthy that his fame, which burned dimly 
enough during his life, has flamed ever brighter and 
brighter since his death. This increase of reputa- 
tion is no doubt due, in some degree, to the " return 
to nature," which has recently been so prominent in 
American life and which has gained a wide hearing 
for so noteworthy a " poet-naturalist " ; but it is 
also due in part to a growing recognition of the 
fact that as a writer of delightful, suggestive and 
inspiring prose he has had few equals. 

Thoreau is easily our most extraordinary man of 
letters. Born in Concord of a poor family, but man- 
aging to work his way through Harvard, he spent 
some years teaching; but an innate love of nature 
and of freedom led him to seek some form of liveli- 
hood which would leave him as much his own master 
as it was possible for a poor man to be. To earn 
money for any other purpose than to provide for 
one's bare necessities was to Thoreau a grievous 
waste of time, so it came about that for many years 
he was a sort of itinerant tinker, a doer of odd jobs. 

45 



A Guide to Biography 

Another characteristic, partly innate and party cul- 
tivated, was a distrust of society and a dislike of 
cities. " I find it as ever very unprofitable to have 
much to do with men," he wrote; and finally, in 
pursuance of this idea, he built himself a little cabin 
on the shore of Walden pond, where he lived for 
some two years and a half. 

It was there that his best work was done, for, at 
bottom, Thoreau was a man of letters rather than a 
naturalist, with the most seeing eye man ever had. 
" Walden, or Life in the Woods," and " A Week on 
the Concord and Merrimac Rivers " contain the best 
of Thoreau, and any boy or girl who is interested 
in the great outdoors, as every boy and girl ought 
to be, will enjoy reading them. 

The last of the Transcendental group worthy of 
mention here is George William Curtis, a versatile 
and charming personality, not a genius in any sense, 
but a writer of pleasant and amusing prose, an 
orator of no small ability, and one of the truest 
patriots who ever loved and labored for his country. 
It is in this latter aspect, rather than as the author 
of " Nile Notes " and " The Potiphar Papers," that 
Curtis is best remembered to-day. The books that 
he produced have, to a large extent, lost their appeal; 
but the work he did during the dark days of recon- 
struction and after entitles him to admiring and 
grateful remembrance. 

It is scarcely possible to close a chapter upon 
American prose writers without referring to at least 

46 



Writers of Prose 

one of the great editors who have done so much to 
mould American public opinion. To James Gordon 
Bennett and Charles A. Dana only passing reference 
need be made; but Horace Greeley deserves more 
extended treatment. 

Early in the last century, on a rocky little farm 
in New Hamj)shire, lived a man by the name of 
Zaccheus Greeley, a good neighbor, but a bad man- 
ager — so bad that, in 1820, when his son Horace 
was nine years old, the farm was seized by the 
sheriff and sold for debt. The proceeds of the sale 
did not pay the debt, and so, in order to escape arrest, 
for they imprisoned people for debt in those days, 
Zaccheus Greeley fled across the border into Ver- 
mont, where his family soon joined him. He man- 
aged to make a precarious living by working at odd 
jobs, in which, of course, the boy joined him when- 
ever he could be of any use. 

He was a rather remarkable boy, with a great 
fondness for books, and when he was eleven years 
old, he tried to get a position in a printing office, 
but was rejected because he was too young. Four 
years later, he heard that a boy was wanted in an 
office at East Poultney, and he hastened to apply for 
the position. He was a lank, ungainly and dull- 
appearing boy, and the owner of the office did not 
think he could ever learn to be a printer, but finally 
put him to work, with the understanding that he 
was to receive nothing but his board and clothes for 
the first six months, and after that forty dollars a 
year additional. 

47 



A Guide to Biography 

The boy soon showed an unusual aptitude for the 
business, and finally decided that the little village 
was too restricted a field for his talents. With 
youth's sublime confidence, he decided to go to New 
York City. He managed to get a position in a print- 
ing office there, and two years later, at the age of 
twenty-two, he and a partner established the first 
one-cent daily newspaper in the United States. It 
was ahead of the times, however, and had to be 
abandoned after a few months. 

But he had discovered his peculiar field, and in 
1840 he established another paper which he called 
the " Log Cabin," in which he supported William 
Henry Harrison through the famous " log cabin and 
hard cider " campaign. The paper was a success, and 
in the year following he established the ISTew York 
" Tribune," which was destined to make him both rich 
and famous. For more than thirty years he con- 
ducted the " Tribune," making it the most influential 
paper in the country. He became the most power- 
ful political writer in the United States, and in every 
village groups gathered regularly to receive their 
papers and to see what " Old Horace " had to say. 
He was to his readers a strong and vivid personality 
— they had faith in his intelligence and honesty, and 
they believed that he would say what he believed 
to be right, regardless of whose toes were pinched. 
It was as different as possible to the anonymous jour- 
nalism of to-day, when not one in a hundred of a 
newspaper's readers knows anything about the per- 
sonality of the editor. 

48 




GREELEY 



Writers of Prose 

We liave already referred to the fact that, at the 
beginning of secession, Greeley doubted the right 
of the North to compel the seceding states to remain 
in the Union. Indeed, he counselled peaceful sep- 
aration rather than war, as did many others, but he 
was later a staunch supporter of President Lincoln's 
policy. 

We have also spoken of the fact that, when Grant 
was re-nominated for President in 1872, a large sec- 
tion of the party, believing him incompetent, broke 
away from the party and named a candidate of their 
own. The party they formed was called the Liberal 
Kepublican, and their candidate was Horace Greeley. 
They managed to secure for him the support of the 
Democratic convention, which placed him at the head 
of the Democratic ticket, but they could not secure 
the support of the Democrats themselves, who could 
not forget that Greeley had been fighting them all 
his life; and the result was that he was overwhelm- 
ingly defeated. He had not expected such a result, 
his health had been undermined by the labors and 
anxieties of the campaign, and before the rejoicing 
of the Republicans was over, Greeley himself lay 
dead. 

SUMMARY 

Irving, Washington. Born at New York City, 
April 3, 1783; went abroad for health, 1804; returned 
to America, 1806 ; published " Knickerbocker's History 
of New York," 1809 ; attache of legation at Madrid, 
1826-29 ; secretary of legation at London, 1829-32 ; 

49 



A Guide to Biography 

minister to Spain, 1842-46; died at Sunnyside, near 
Tarry town, New York, November 28, 1859. 

Cooper, James Fenimore, Born at Burlington, 
New Jersey, September 15, 1789 ; entered Yale, 1802, 
but left after three years ; midshipman in United States 
navy, 1808-11, when he resigned his commission; pub- 
lished first novel, " Precaution," anonymously, 1820, 
and followed it with many others ; died at Cooperstown, 
New York, September 14, 1851. 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Born at Salem, Massa- 
chusetts, July 4, 1804; graduated at Bowdoin College, 
1825 ; served in Custom House at Boston, 1838-41 ; at 
Brook Farm, 1841 ; settled at Concord, Massachusetts, 
1843; surveyor of the port of Salem, 1846-49; United 
States consul at Liverpool, 1853-57; published " Twice- 
Told Tales," 1837; "Mosses from an Old Manse," 
1846 ; " The Scarlet Letter," 1850 ; " The House of the 
Seven Gables," 1851 ; and a number of other novels 
and collections of tales; died at Plymouth, New Hamp- 
shire, May 19, 1864. 

Stowe, Harriet Beeciier. Born at Litchfield, Con- 
necticut, June 14, 1812; educated at Hartford, Connec- 
ticut; taught school there and at Cincinnati; published 
"Uncle Tom's Cabin," 1852; " Dred," 1856; and a 
number of other novels ; died at Hartford, Connecticut, 
July 1, 1896. 

Clemens, Samuel Langhorne. Born at Florida, 
Missouri, November 30, 1835; apprenticed to printer, 
1847; alternated between mining and newspaper work, 
until the publication of " Innocents Abroad," 1869, 

50 



Writers of Prose 

made him famous as a humorist ; died at Redding, Con- 
necticut, April 22, 1910; published many collections of 
short stories and several novels. 

Bancroft, George. Born at Worcester, Massachu- 
setts, October 3, 1800; graduated at Harvard, 1817; 
collector of the port of Boston, 1838-41 ; Democratic 
candidate for governor of Massachusetts, 1844; secre- 
tary of the navy, 1845-46; minister to Great Britain, 
1846-49; minister to Berlin, 1867-74; published first 
volume of his " History of the United States," 1834, 
last volume, 1874; died at Washington, Jan. 17, 1891. 

Prescott, William Hickling. Born at Salem, 
Massachusetts, May 4, 1796; published " History of the 
Eeign of Ferdinand and Isabella," 1838; "Conquest 
of Mexico," 1843; "Conquest of Peru," 1847; "His- 
tory of the Reign of Philip II," 1858 ; died at Boston, 
January 28, 1859. 

Motley, John Lothrop. Born at Dorchester (now 
part of Boston), Massachusetts, April 15, 1814; gradu- 
ated at Harvard, 1831; studied abroad, 1831-34; 
United States minister to Austria, 1861-67, and to 
Great Britain, 1869-70; published "Rise of the Dutch 
Republic," 1856; "History of the United Nether- 
lands," 1868 ; " Life and Death of John of Barneveld," 
1874; died in Dorset, England, May 29, 1877. 

Parkman, Francis. Born at Boston, September 16, 
1823; graduated at Harvard, 1844; published "The 
Conspiracy of Pontiac," 1851, and continued series of 
histories dealing with the French in America to " A 
Half Century of Conflict," 1892; died at Jamaica 
Plain, near Boston, November 8, 1893. 

51 



A Guide to Biography 

Alcott, Amos Bronson. Born at Wolcott, Connec- 
ticut, November 29, 1799; a book-peddler and school- 
teacher, conducting a school in Boston, 1834-37; re- 
moved to Concord, 1840; published "Orphic Sayings," 
1840; "Tablets," 1868; "Concord Days," 1872; " Ta- 
ble-Talk," 1877; "Sonnets and Canzonets," 1882; 
died at Boston, March 4, 1888. 

Alcott, Louisa May. Born at Germantown, Penn- 
sylvania, November 29, 1832 ; teacher in early life and 
army nurse during Civil War; published "Little 
Women," 1868; " Old-Fashioned Girl," 1869; "Little 
Men," 1871, and many other children's stories; died 
at Boston, March 6, 1888. 

Fuller, Sarah Margaret, Marchioness Ossoli. 
Born at Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, May 23, 1810; 
edited Boston Dial, 1840-42; literary critic New 
YorJc Tribune, 1844-46; published "Summer on the 
Lakes," 1843; "Woman in the Nineteenth Century," 
1845; "Papers on Art and Literature," 1846; went to 
Europe, 1846; married Marquis Ossoli, 1847; drowned 
off Fire Island, July 16, 1850. 

Emerson, Ealph Waldo. Born at Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, May 25, 1803; graduated at Harvard, 1821; 
Unitarian clergyman at Boston, 1829-32; commenced 
career as lecturer, 1833, and continued for nearly forty 
years ; edited the Dial, 1842-44 ; published " Nature," 
1836; "Essays," 1841; "Poems," 1846; " Eepresenta- 
tive Men," 1850; and other books of essays and poems; 
died at Concord, Massachusetts, April 27, 1882. 

Thoreau, Henry David. Born at Concord, Massa- 
chusetts, July 12, 1817; graduated at Harvard, 1837; 

52 



Writers of Prose 

lived alone at Walden Pond, 1845-47; published "A 
Week on the Concord and Merrimac Eivers," 1849 ; 
"Walden, or Life in the Woods," 1854; died at Con- 
cord, May 6, 1863. Several collections of his essays 
and letters were published after his death. 

Curtis, George William. Born at Providence, 
Rhode Island, February 24, 1824; joined the Brook 
Farm Community, 1842, and afterwards spent some 
years in travel ; published " Nile Notes of a Howadji," 
"The Howadji in Syria," "The Potiphar Papers," 
and other books; prominent as an anti-slavery orator 
and as the editor of " Harper's Weekly " ; died at West 
New Brighton, Staten Island, August 31, 1892. 

Greeley, Horace. Born at Amherst, New Hamp- 
shire, February 3, 1811 ; founded New York Tribune, 
1841 ; member of Congress from New York, 1848-49 ; 
candidate of Liberal-Republican and Democratic par- 
ties for President, 1872; died at Pleasantville, West- 
chester County, New York, November 29, 1872. 



53 



CHAPTER III 

WRITERS OF VERSE 

**pOETRY," says the Century dictionary, "is 
■*- that one of the fine arts which addresses itself 
to the feelings and the imagination by the instru- 
mentality of musical and moving words"; and that 
is probably as concise a definition of poetry as can 
be evolved. For poetry is difficult to define. Verse 
we can describe, because it is mechanical; but poetry 
is verse with a soul added. 

It is for this very reason that there is so wide a 
variance in the critical estimates of the work of 
individual poets. The feelings and imagination of 
no two persons are exactly the same, and what will 
appeal to one will fail to appeal to the other; so 
that it follows that what is poetry for one is merely 
verse for the other. Tastes vary in poetry, just as 
they do in food. Indeed, poetry is a good deal like 
food. "VVe all of us like bread and butter, and we 
eat it every day and get good, solid nourishment from 
it; but only the educated palate can appreciate the 
refinements of caviar, or Gorgonzola cheese, or some 
rare and special vintage. So most of us derive a mild 
enjoyment from the works of such poets as Long- 
fellow and Tennyson and Whittier; but it requires 

54' 



Writers of Verse 

a trained taste to appreciate the subtle delights of 
Browning or Edgar Allan Poe. 

Now the taste for the simple and obvious is a 
natural taste — the child's taste, healthy, and, some 
will add, unspoiled; but poetry must be judged by 
the nicer and more exacting standard, just as all other 
of the fine arts must. I wonder if you have ever 
read what is probably the most perfect lyric ever 
written by an American? I am going to set it down 
here as an example of what poetry can be, and I 
want you to compare your favorite poems, whatever 
they may be, with it. It is by Edgar Allan Poe and 
is called 

TO HELEN 

Helen, thy beauty is to me 

Like those Nicaean barks of yore, 
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea, 

The weary, wayworn wanderer bore 

To his own native shore. 

On desperate seas long wont to roam, 
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face, 

Thy Naiad airs, have brought me home 
To the glory that was Greece 
And the grandeur that was Rome. 

Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche 

How statue-like I see thee stand, 
The agate lamp within thy hand ! 

Ah, Psyche, from the regions which 

Are Holy Land! 

In 1821 — the same year which saw the publication 
of The Spy, the first significant American novel — 
there appeared at Boston a little pamphlet of forty- 

55 



A Guide to Biography 

four pages, bound modestly in brown paper boards, 
and containing eight poems. Two of them were 
" To a Waterfowl " and " Thanatopsis," and that 
little volume marked the advent of the first American 
poet — William Cullen Bryant. Out of the great 
mass of verse produced on our continent for two 
centuries after the Pilgrim Fathers landed on Ply- 
mouth Rock, his was the first which displayed those 
qualities which make for immortality. 

Before him our greatest poets had been Philip 
Freneau, the " Poet of the Revolution " ; Francis 
Scott Key, whose supreme achievement was " The 
Star-Spangled Banner "; Fitz-Greene Halleck, known 
to every school-boy by his " Marco Bozzaris," but 
chiefly memorable for a beautiful little lyric, " On 
the Death of Joseph Rodman Drake"; and Drake 
himself, perhaps the greatest of the four, but dying 
at the age of twenty-five with nothing better to his 
credit than the well-known " The American Flag," 
and the fanciful and ambitious " The Culprit Fay." 
But these men were, at best, only graceful versifiers, 
and Bryant loomed so far above them and the other 
verse-makers of his time that he was hailed as a 
miracle of genius, a sort of Parnassan giant whose 
like had never before existed. We estimate him 
more correctly to-day as a poet of the second rank, 
whose powers were limited but genuine. Indeed, 
even in his own day, Bryant's reputation waned 
somewhat, for he never fulfilled the promise of that 
first volume, and " To a Waterfowl " and " Thana- 
topsis " remain the best poems he ever wrote. 

56 



Writers of Verse 

William Cullen Bryant was born at Cummington, 
Massachusetts, in 1794, the son of a physician, from 
whom he received practically all his early training, 
and who was himself a writer of verse. The boy's 
talent for versification was encouraged, and some of 
his productions were recited at school and published 
in the poet's corner of the local newspaper. In 
1808, when Bryant was fourteen years old, the first 
volume of his poems was printed at Boston, with an 
advertisement certifying the extreme youth of the 
author. It contained nothing of any importance, and 
why anyone should care to read dull verse because 
it was written by a child is incomprehensible, but 
the book had some success, and Bryant's father was 
a very proud man. 

Three years later, Bryant entered Williams College, 
but soon left, and, not having the means to pay his 
way through Yale, gave up the thought of college 
altogether, and began the study of law. He also read 
widely in English literature, and while in his sev- 
enteenth year produced what may fairly be called 
the first real poem written in America, " Thana- 
topsis," a wonderful achievement for a youth of that 
age. Six months later came the beautiful lines, " To 
a Waterfowl," and Bryant's career as a poet was 
fairly begun. In 1821 came the thin volume in 
which these and other poems were collected, and its 
success finally decided its author to relinquish a 
career at the bar and to turn to literature. 

In the years that followed, Bryant produced a few 
other noteworthy poems, yet it is significant of the 

57 



A Guide to Biography 

thinness of his inspiration that, -though he began 
writing in early youth and lived to the age of eighty- 
four, his total product was scant in the extreme 
when compared with that of any of the acknowl- 
edged masters. His earnings from this source 
were never great, and, removing to 'New York, 
he secured, in 1828, the editorship of the Evening 
Post, with which he remained associated until his 
death. 

In his later years, he became an imposing na- 
tional figure. But his poetry never regained the 
wide acceptation which it once enjoyed, largely be- 
cause taste in verse has changed, and we have come 
to lay more stress upon beauty than upon ethical 
teaching. 

America has never lacked for versifiers, and 
Bryant's success encouraged a greater throng than 
ever to " lisp in numbers " ; but few of them grew 
beyond the lisjDing stage, and it was not until the 
middle of the century that any emerged from this 
throng to take their stand definitely beside the author 
of " Thanatopsis." Then, almost simultaneously, six 
others disengaged themselves — Longfellow, Whittier, 
Poe, Lowell, Holmes and Emerson — and remain to 
this day the truest poets in our history. 

Of Emerson we have already spoken. His poetry 
has been, and still is, the subject of controversy. To 
some, it is the best in our literature; to others, it is 
not poetry at all, but merely rhythmic prose. It 
is lacking in passion, in poetic glow — for how can 
fire come out of an iceberg? — but about some of it 

58 



Writers of Verse 

tliere is the clean-cut beauty of tlie cameo. You 
know, of course, his immortal quatrain, 

Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why 

This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, 

TeU them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing. 

Then Beauty is its own excuse for being. 

More than once lie hit the bull's-eye, so to speak, 
in just that splendid way. 

Of the others, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is 
easily first in popular reputation, if not in actual 
achievement. Born at Portland, Maine, in 1807, of 
a good family, he developed into an attractive and 
promising boy; was a classmate at Bowdoin College 
of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and after three years' study 
abroad, was given the chair of modern languages 
there. For five years he held this position, filling it 
so well that in 1834 he was called to Harvard. He 
entered upon his duties there after another year 
abroad, and continued with them for eighteen years. 
The remainder of his life was spent quietly amid 
a congenial circle of friends at Cambridge. He was 
essentially home-loving, and took no strenuous in- 
terest in public affairs; for this reason, perhaps, he 
won a warmer place in public affection than has been 
accorded to any other American man-of-letters, for 
the American people is a home-loving people, and 
especially admires that quality in its great men. 

From his earliest youth, Longfellow had written 
verses of somewhat unusual merit for a boy, though 
remarkable rather for smoothness of rhythm than 

59 



A Guide to Biographj 

for depth or originality of thought. His modern 
language studies involved much translation, but his 
first book, " Hyperion," was not published until 
1839. It attained a considerable vogue, but as noth- 
ing to the wide popularity of " Voices of the Night," 
which appeared the same year. Two years later ap- 
peared " Ballads and Other Poems," and the two 
collections established their author in the popular 
heart beyond possibility of assault. They contained 
" A Psalm of Life," " The Reaper and the Flow- 
ers," "The Village Blacksmith," and "Excelsior," 
which, however we may dispute their claims as 
poetry, have taken their place among the treasured 
household verse of the nation. 

Four years later, in " The Belfry of Bruges and 
Other Poems," he added two more to this collection, 
" The Day is Done " and " The Bridge." The publi- 
cation, in 1847, of " Evangeline " raised him to the 
zenith of his reputation. His subsequent work con- 
firmed him in popular estimation as the greatest of 
American poets — " Hiawatha," " The Courtship of 
Miles Standish," and such shorter poems as " Resig- 
nation," "The Children's Hour," "Paul Revere's 
Ride," and " The Old Clock on the Stairs." 

But, after all, Longfellow was not a really great 
poet. He lacked the strength of imagination, the 
sureness of insight and the delicacy of fancy neces- 
sary to great poetry. He was rather a sentimentalist 
to whom study and practice had given an excep- 
tional command of rhythm. The prevailing note of 
his best-known lyrics is one of sentimental sorrow 

60 



Writers of Verse 

— the note which is of the very widest appeal. His 
public is largely the same public which weeps over 
the death of little Nell and loves to look at Landseer's 
" The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner." Longfellow 
and Dickens and Landseer were all great artists and 
did admirable work, but scarcely the very highest 
work. But Longfellow's ballads " found an echo in 
the universal human heart," and won him an affec- 
tion such as has been accorded no other modern poet. 
His place is by the hearth-side rather than on the 
mountain-top — by far the more comfortable and 
cheerful position of the two. 

The year of Longfellow's birth witnessed that of 
another American poet, more virile, but of a nar- 
rower appeal — John Greenleaf Whittier. Whittier's 
birthplace was the old house at East Haverhill, Mas- 
sachusetts, where many generations of his Quaker 
ancestors had dwelt. The family was poor, and the 
boy's life was a hard and cramped one, with few 
opportunities for schooling or culture; yet its very 
rigor made for character, and developed that courage 
and simplicity which were Whittier's noblest at- 
tributes. 

What there was in the boy that moved him to 
write verse it would be difficult to say — some bent, 
some crotchet, which defies explanation. Certain it 
is that he did write; his sister sent some of his verses 
to a neighboring paper, and the result was a visit 
from its editor, William Lloyd Garrison, who en- 
couraged the boy to get some further schooling, and 
afterwards helped him to secure a newspaper position 

61 



A Guide to Biography 

in Boston. But his health failed him, and he re- 
turned to Haverhill, removing, in 1836, to Ames- 
bury, where the remainder of his life was spent. 

He had already become interested in politics, had 
joined the abolitionists, and was soon the most in- 
fluential of the protestants against slavery. Into 
this battle he threw himself heart and soul. It is 
amusing to reflect that, though a Quaker and ad- 
vocate of non-resistance, he probably did more to 
render the Civil War inevitable than any other one 
man. During the war, his lyrics aided the Northern 
cause; and as soon as it was over, he labored un- 
ceasingly to allay the evil passions which the contest 
had aroused. He lived to the ripe age of eighty-five, 
simply and bravely, and his career was from first to 
last consistent and inspiring, one of the sweetest and 
gentlest in history. 

Although Whittier was endowed with a brighter 
spark of the divine fire than Longfellow, he himself 
was conscious that he did not possess 

The seerlike power to show 

The secrets of the heart and mind. 

He was lacking, too, in intellectual equipment — in 
culture, in mastery of rhythm and diction, in felic- 
itous phrasing. And yet, on at least two occasions, 
he rang sublimely true — in his denunciation of Web- 
ster, " Ichabod," and in his idyll of New England 
rural life, " Snow-Bound." 

The third of these New England poets, and also 
the least important, is Oliver Wendell Holmes. Born 

62 



Writers of Verse 

at Cambridge, in the inner circle of New England 
aristocracy, educated at Harvard, and studying med- 
icine in Boston and Paris, he practiced his profession 
for twelve years, until, in 1847, he was called to the 
chair of anatomy and physiology at Harvard, con- 
tinuing in that position until 1882. He lived until 
1894, the last survivor of the seven poets whom we 
have mentioned. 

During his student days. Holmes had gained con- 
siderable reputation as a writer of humorous and 
sentimental society verse, and during his whole life 
he wrote practically no other kind. Long practice 
gave him an easy command of rhythm, and a care- 
ful training added delicacy to his diction. He be- 
came remarkably dexterous in rhyme, and grew 
to be the recognized celebrant of class reunions and 
public dinners. Urbane, felicitous and possessing an 
unflagging humor, he was the prince of after-dinner 
poets — not a lofty position, be it observed, nor one 
making for immortal fame. His highwater mark 
was reached in three poems, " The Chambered 
Xautilus," " The Deacon's Masterpiece," and that 
faultless piece of familiar verse, " The Last Leaf," 
all of which are widely and affectionately known. 
He lacked power and depth of imagination, the field 
in which he was really at home was a narrow one, 
and the verdict of time Avill probably be that he was 
a pleasant versifier rather than a true poet. 

His claim to the attention of posterity is likely to 
rest, not on his verses, but upon a sprightly hodge- 
podge of imaginary table-talk, called " The Autocrat 

63 



A Guide to Biography 

of the Breakfast-Table " — a \vanii-heartod, kindly 
book, Avhioh still retains its savor. 

And this brings ns to our most versatile man-of- 
letters — James Eiissell Lowell. Born at Cambridge, 
in the old house called *' Elmwood," so dear to his 
readers, spending an ideal boyhood in the midst of 
a cultured circle, treading the predestined path 
through Harvard, studying law and gaining admis- 
sion to the bar — such was the story of his life for 
the first twenty-five years. As a student at Harvard, 
he had written a great deal of prose and verse of 
considerable merit, and he continued this work after 
graduation, gaining a livelihood somewhat precarious, 
indeed, yet sufficient to render it unnecessary for 
him to attempt to practice law. But it was not until 
1848 that he really " struck his gait." 

Certainly, then, he struck it to good purpose by 
the publication of the " Biglow Papers " and ** A 
Fable for Critics," and stood revealed as one of the 
wisest, wittiest, most fearless and most patriotic of 
moralists and satirists. For the '* Biglow Papers " 
mark a culmination of American humorous and 
satiric poetry which has never since been rivalled; 
and the " Fable for Critics " displays a satiric power 
unequalled since the days when Byron laid his lash 
along the backs of " Scotch Beviewers." 

Both were real contributions to American letters, 
but as pure poetry both were surpassed later in the 
same year by his " Vision of Sir Lannfal." These 
three productions, indeed, promised more for the 
future than Lowell was able to perform. He had 

64 



Writers of Verse 

gone up like a balloon ; but, instead of mounting 
higher, he drifted along at the same level, and at 
last came back to earth. 

The succeeding seven years saw no production of 
the first importance from his pen, although a series 
of lectures on poetry, which he delivered before the 
Lowell Institute, brought him the offer of the chair 
at Harvard which Longfellow had just relinquished. 
Two years later, he became editor of the Atlantic 
Monthly, holding the position until 1861. During 
this time, he wrote little, but the opening of the Civil 
War gave a fresh imj^etus to his muse, his most 
noteworthy contribution to letters being the " Com- 
memoration Ode " with which he marked its close — 
a poem which has risen steadily in public estimation, 
and which is, without doubt, the most notable of its 
kind ever delivered in America. The poems which 
he published during the next twenty years did little 
to enhance his reputation, which, as a poet, must rest 
upon his " Biglow Papers," his odes, and his " Vision 
of Sir Launfal," 

Yet poetry was but one of his modes of expression, 
and, some think, the less important one. Immedi- 
ately following the Civil War, he turned his atten- 
tion to criticism, and when these essays were collected 
under the titles " Among My Books " and " My 
Study Windows," they proved their author to be the 
ablest critic, the most accomplished scholar, the most 
cultured writer — in a word, the greatest all-around 
man-of-letters, in America. 

This prominence brought him the offer of the 
65 



A Guide to Biography 

Spanish mission, which he accejDted, going from 
Madrid to London, in 1880, as Ambassador to Great 
Britain, and remaining there for five years. The 
service he did there is incalculable; as the spokesman 
for America and the representative of American cul- 
ture, he took his place with dignity and honor among 
England's greatest; his addresses charmed and im- 
pressed them, and he may be fairly said to have laid 
the foundations of that cordial friendship between 
America and Great Britain which exists to-day. " I 
am a bookman," was Lowell's proudest boast — not 
only a writer of books, but a mighty reader of books; 
and he is one of the most significant figures in Amer- 
ican letters. 

So we come to the man who measures up more 
nearly to the stature of a great poet than any other 
American — Edgar Allan Poe. Outside of America, 
there has never been any hesitancy in pronouncing 
Poe the first poet of his country; but, at home, it 
is only recently his real merit has come to be at all 
generally acknowledged. 

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809 — 
a stroke of purest irony on the part of fate, for he 
was in no respect a Bostonian, and it was to Bos- 
tonians especially that he was anathema. His parents 
were actors, travelling from place to place, and his 
birth at Boston w^as purely accidental. They had 
no home and no fortune, but lived from hand to 
mouth, in the most precarious way, and both of 
them were dead before their son was two years old. 
He had an elder brother and a younger sister, and 

66 



Writers of Verse 

tliese three babies were left stranded at Richmond, 
Virginia, entirely without money. Luckily they were 
too young to realize how very dark their future 
was, and the Providence which looks after the 
sparrows also looked after them. The wife of 
a well-to-do tobacco merchant, named John Allan, 
took a fancy to the dark-eyed, dark-haired boy 
of two, and, having no children of her own, adopted 
him. 

It was better fortune than he could have hoped 
for, for he was brought up in comfort in a good 
home, and his foster-parents seem to have loved him 
and to have been ambitious for his future. He was 
an erratic boy, and was soon to get into the first of 
those difficulties which ended by wrecking his life. 
For, entering the University of Virginia, he made 
the mistake of associating with a fast set, with whom 
he had no business, and ended by losing heavy sums 
of money, which he was, of course, unable to pay, 
and which his foster-father very properly refused 
to pay for him. Instead, he removed the boy from 
college and put him to work in his office at Rich- 
mond. 

Edgar felt that, in refusing to pay his debts, his 
foster-father had besmirched his honor. The thought 
rankled in his soul, and he ended by running away 
from home. Tie got to Boston, somehow, and en- 
listed in the army, serving for three years as a private. 
At the end of that time, there was a reconciliation 
between him and his foster-father, and the latter 
provided a substitute for him in the army, and se- 

67 



A Guide to Biography 

cured him an appointment to the military academy 
at West Point. 

Why Poe should have felt that he was fitted for 
army life is difficult to understand, since he had 
always been impatient of discipline; but to West 
Point he went and very promptly got into trouble 
there, which culminated, at the end of the year, in 
court-martial and dismissal. He knew that his foster- 
father's patience was exhausted, and that he could 
expect nothing more from him, and he soon proved 
himself incapable of self-support. 

He drifted from New York to Baltimore, often 
without knowing where his next meal was coming 
from, and finally, at Baltimore, his father's widowed 
sister gave him a home, and he soon married her 
fragile daughter, Virginia Clemm. But he had long 
been a prey to intemperance, and his habits in con- 
sequence were so irregular that he was unable to 
retain any permanent position. The truth seems 
to be that Poe was of a temperament so intensely 
nervous and sensitive that the smallest amount of 
alcoholic stimulant excited him beyond control, and 
he lacked the will-power to leave it alone altogether, 
which was his only chance of safety. 

Yet he had gained a certain reputation with dis- 
cerning people by the publication of a few poems of 
surprising merit, as well as a number of tales as 
remarkable and compelling as have ever been writ- 
ten in any language. That is a broad statement, 
and yet it is literally true. Not only is Poe 
America's greatest poet, but he is still more 

68 



Writers of Verse 

decidedly her greatest short-story writer — so much 
the greatest, that with the exception of Nathaniel 
Hawthorne, she has never produced another to rival 
him. 

If further testimony to his genius were needed, it 
might be found in the fact that he was still unable 
to make a living with his pen, and was forced to 
see his wife growing daily weaker without the means 
to provide her proper nourishment. His sufferings 
were frightful; he was compelled to bend his pride to 
an appeal for public charity, and the death of his 
wife wrecked such moral self-control as he had re- 
maining. 

The rest is soon told. There was a rapid deterio- 
ration, and on October 3, 1849, he was found un- 
conscious in a saloon at Baltimore, where an elec- 
tion had been in progress and where Poe had been 
made drunk and then used as an illegal voter. He 
was taken to a hospital, treated for delirium tremens, 
and died three days later, a miserable outcast, at an 
age where he should have been at the very zenith 
of his powers. The pages of the world's history 
show no death more pathetically tragic. 

Such a death naturally offended right-thinking peo- 
ple. Especially did it offend the New England con- 
science, which has never been able to divorce art 
from morals; and as the literary dominance of New 
England was at that time absolute, Poe was buried 
under a mass of uncharitable criticism. It should 
not be forgotten that he had struck the poisoned 
barb of his satire deep into many a New England 

69 



A Guide to Biography 

sage, and it was, perhaps, only human nature to 
strike back. So it came to pass that Poe was pointed 
out, not as a man of genius, but as a horrible ex- 
ample and degrading influence to be sedulously 
avoided. 

With foreign readers, all this counted for noth- 
ing. They were concerned not with the life of the 
man, but with the work of the artist, and they found 
that work consummately good. They were charmed 
and thrilled by the haunting melody of his verse 
and the weird horror of his tales. In his own coun- 
try, recognition of his genius has grown rapidly of 
recent years. Within his own sphere, he is unques- 
tionably the greatest artist America can boast — he 
climbed Parnassus higher than any of his country- 
men, and if he did not quite attain a seat among 
the immortals, he at least caught some portion of 
their radiance. 

After Poe, the man whom foreign critics consider 
America's most representative poet is another who 
has been without honor in his own country, and 
about whom, even yet, there is the widest difference 
of opinion— Walt Whitman. Whitman was ostra- 
cized for many years not because of his life, which 
was regular and admirable enough, but because of 
his verse, which is exceedingly irregular in more than 
one resjDect. 

Whitman was by birth and training a man of the 
people. His father was a carpenter, and, after re- 
ceiving a common-school education, the boy entered 
a printer's office at the age of thirteen. A printer's 

70 



Writers of Verse 

office is, in itself, a source of education, and Whit- 
man soon began to write for the papers, finally going 
to New York City, where, for twelve years, he 
worked on Newspaper Kow, as reporter or com- 
positor, making friends with all sorts and conditions 
of men and entering heart and sonl into the busy 
life of the great city. The people, the seething 
masses on the streets, had a compelling fascination 
for him. 

Tiring of New York, at last, he started on a tramp 
trip to the southwest, worked in New Orleans and 
other towns, swung around through the northwest, 
and so back to Brooklyn, where he became, strangely 
enough, a contractor — a builder and seller of houses. 
He had been reading a great deal, all these years, but 
as yet had given no indication of what was to be his 
literary life-work. 

And yet, fermenting inside the man and at last 
demanding expression, was a strange new philosophy 
of democracy, all-tolerant, holding the individual to 
be of the first importance, male and female equal, 
the body to be revered no less than the soul. For 
the promulgation of this philosophy, some worthy 
literary form was needed — poetry, since that was 
the noblest form, but poetry stripped of conventiong 
and stock phrases, as " fluent and free as the people 
and the land and the great system of democracy 
which it was to celebrate." With some such idea as 
this, not outlined in words, nor, perhaps, very clearly 
understood even by himself. Whitman set to work, 
and the result was the now famous " Leaves of 

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A Guide to Biography 

Grass," a collection of twelve poems, printed by the 
author in Brooklyn in 1855. 

Like most other philosophies and prophecies, it fell 
on heedless ears. Few people read it, and those who 
did were exasperated by its far-fetched diction or 
scandalized by its free treatment of delicate topics. 
In the next year, a second edition appeared, con- 
taining thirty-two poems; but the book had practi- 
cally no sale. 

Then came the Civil War, and Whitman, volun- 
teering not for the field, but for work in the hos- 
pitals, proved that the doctrine of brotherly love, so 
basic to his poems, was basic also to his character. 
" N^ot till the sun excludes you, neither will I ex- 
clude you," he had declared ; and now he devoted 
himself to nursing, on battlefield, in camp and 
hospital, doing what he could to cheer and lighten 
the worst side of war, an attractive and inspiring 
figure. 

Lincoln, looking out of a window of the White 
House, saw him go past one day; a majestic person 
with snow-white beard and hair, his cotton shirt open 
at the throat, six feet tall and perfectly proportioned; 
and the President, without knowing who he was, but 
mistaking him probably for a common laborer, 
turned to a friend who stood beside him and re- 
marked, " There goes a man ! " And Whitman was 
a man. Up to that time, he had never been ill a 
day; but two years later, at the age of fifty-three, 
his health gave way, under the strain of nursing, and 
from that time until his death he was, physically, 

72 



Writers of Verse 

" a man in ruins." Mentally, he was as alert and 
virile as ever. 

He was given a clerical position in one of the de- 
partments at Washington after that, remaining 
there until, in 1873, an attack of paralysis incapa- 
citated him even for clerical labor. Meanwhile he 
had issued his poems of the war, under the title 
" Drum-Taps," and had softened some hostile hearts 
by the two noble tributes to Lincoln there included, 
" O Captain, my Captain ! " and " When Lilacs last 
in the Dooryard Bloom'd." But his poetry brought 
him no income and, for a time, after his removal to 
Camden, New Jersey, where the remainder of his 
life was to be passed, he was in absolute want. 
Friends increased, however; his poems were re-issued, 
and his last years were spent in the midst of a 
circle of discij)les, who hailed Whitman as a seer and 
prophet and were guilty of other fatuities which 
made the judicious grieve and did much to keep them 
alienated from the poet's work. 

Since his death, his fame has become established 
on a firmer basis than hysterical adulation; but it is 
yet too soon to attempt to judge him, to say what 
his ultimate rank will be. It seems probable that it 
will be a high one, and it is possible that, centuries 
hence, the historian of American letters will start 
with Whitman as the first exponent of an original 
and democratic literature, disregarding all that has 
gone before as merely imitative of Europe. 

Of our lesser poets, only a few need be mentioned 
here. Bayard Taylor, born in Pennsylvania in 1825, 

73 



A Guide to Biography 

of Quaker stock and reared in the tenets of that 
sect, at one time loomed large in American letters, 
but it is doubtful whether anything of his has the 
quality of permanency. His personality was a pic- 
turesque and fascinating one and his life interesting 
and romantic. 

A poor boy, burning with the itch to write and 
especially to travel; at the age of nineteen making 
his way to England, and from there to Germany; 
spending two years in Europe, enduring hardships, 
living with the common people; and finally returning 
home to find that his letters to the newspapers had 
been read with interest and had won a considerable 
audience — these were the first steps in his struggle 
for recognition. He collected his letters into a book 
called " Views Afoot," which at once became widely 
popular, and his reputation was made. 

But it was a reputation as a reporter and traveller, 
and Taylor, much as he despised it, was never able 
to get away from it. He became, perforce, a sort 
of official traveller for the American people, jour- 
neyed in California, in the Orient, in Russia, Lap- 
land — in most of the out-of-the-way corners of the 
world — and his books of travel were uniformly 
interesting and successful. They do not attract to- 
day, not, as Park Benjamin put it, because Taylor 
travelled more and saw less than any other man who 
ever lived, but because they lack the charm of style, 
depth of thought, and keenness of observation which 
the present generation has come to expect. 

During all this time, Taylor was struggling with 
74 



Writers of Verse 

pathetic earnestness for recognition as a novelist and 
poet, but with poor measure of success. His novels 
were crude and amateurish, and have long since 
become negligible; but his verse is somewhat more 
important. His travels in the East furnished him 
material for his " Poems of the Orient," which rep- 
resent him at his best. 

His ambition, however, was to write a great epic; 
but fur this he lacked both intellectual and emotional 
equipment, and his attempts in this field were virtual 
failures. These failures were to him most tragic; 
not only that, but he found himself financially em- 
barrassed, and was forced to turn to such hack work 
as the writing of school histories in order to gain 
a livelihood. But his friends, of whom he had always 
a wide circle, secured him the mission to Germany, 
and he entered on his duties in high spirits — only 
to die suddenly one morning while sitting in his 
library at Berlin. A generous, impulsive and warm- 
hearted man. Bayard Taylor will be remembered for 
what he was, rather than for what he did. 

Two other poets, whose deaths occurred not many 
months ago, have made noteworthy contributions to 
American letters — Edmund Clarence Stedman and 
Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Of the two, Aldrich was by 
far the better craftsman, his verse possessing a wit, 
a daintiness and perfection of finish which sets it 
apart in a class almost by itself. In prose, too, 
Aldrich wrote attractively, but always rather with 
the air of a dilettante, and without the depth and 
passion of genius. Stedman also possessed wit and 

75 



A Guide to Biography 

polish, though in less degree, and the verse of both 
these men is delightful reading. 

More recent still has been the death of a man 
whose verse ranks with that of either Stedman or 
Aldrich — Richard Watson Gilder. Some of his 
lyrics are very beautiful, but they appeal to the 
intellect rather than to the heart. Perhaps for this 
reason, as well as for a certain lack of substance and 
virility, his verse has never had a wide appeal. 

Two men whose names have become household 
words because of their delightful verses for and 
about children are Eugene Field and James Whit- 
comb Riley. Field is the greater of the two, for he 
possessed a depth of feeling and insight which is 
lacking in Riley. Few lyrics have been more widely 
popular than his " Little Boy Blue " and " Dutch 
Lullaby " ; while Riley's " Little Orphant Annie " 
and " The Raggedy Man " are equally well known. 

Alice and Phoebe Gary are remembered for a few 
simply -written lyrics; Julia Ward Howe's " Battle- 
Hymn of the Republic " lives as the worthiest piece 
of verse evoked by the Civil War; and Joaquin 
Miller is known for a certain rude power in song; 
but none of them is of sufficient importance to de- 
mand extended study. 

It will be noted that, among all the poets who 
have been mentioned here, not one was distinctively 
of the South. Poe's youth was spent in Richmond, 
but he was in no sense Southern. Indeed, the South 
has only three names to offer of even minor im- 

76 



Writers of Verse 

portance — Sidney Lanier, Henry Timrod, and Paul 
Hamilton Hayne. None of these men produced any- 
thing of the first order, and much of their verse is 
marred by amateurishness and want of finish — the 
result, in the first place, of defective training, and, in 
the second place, of an incapacity for taking pains, 
of a habit which relied too much on " inspiration " 
and too little on intellectual effort. 

For verse, to be perfect, must be polished like a 
diamond, slowly and carefully, until every facet 
sparkles. This means that the right word or phrase 
must be searched for until it is found. Perhaps you 
have read Mr. Barrie's inimitable story " Senti- 
mental Tommy," and you will remember how Tom- 
my failed to write the prize essay because he couldn't 
think of the right word, and would be satisfied with 
no other. Well, that is the spirit. Somebody has 
said that " easy writing makes hard reading," and 
this is especially true of poetry. Inspiration doesn't 
extend to technic — that must be acquired, like any 
art, with infinite pains. 

Of the three poets, Lanier, Timrod, and Hayne, 
Lanier was by far the greatest, and has even be- 
come, in a small way, the centre of a cult; but his 
voice, while often pure and sweet, lacks the strength 
needed to carry it down the ages. He is like a little 
brook making beautiful some meadow or strip of 
woodland; but only mighty rivers reach the ocean. 
Lanier is memorable not so much for his work as for 
the gallant fight he made against the consumption 
which he had contracted as the result of exposure in 

77 



A Guide to Bio^aphy 

the Confederate army during the Civil War. The 
war also played a disastrous part in the lives of both 
Hayne and Timrod, for it impoverished both of them, 
and did much to hasten the latter's death. 

Timrod, too, rose occasionally to noble utterance, 
but his voice is fainter and his talent more slender 
than Lanier's. His life was a painful one, marred 
by poverty and disease, and he died at the age of 
thirty-eight. Ilayne's work is even less important, 
for he did not, like Timrod and Lanier, touch an 
occasional height of inspired utterance. His name 
is cherished in his native state of South Carolina, and 
in Georgia, where his last years were spent; but his 
poems are little read elsewhere. 

Timrod and Hayne were both born at Charleston, 
South Carolina, as was a third poet and novelist, who, 
in his day, loomed far larger than either of them, 
but who is now almost forgotten, except by students 
of American literature — William Gilmore Simms. 
Few American writers have produced so much — 
eighteen volumes of verse, three dramas, thirty-five 
novels and volumes of short stories, and about as 
many more books of history, biography and miscel- 
lany — and none, of like prominence in his day, has 
dropped more completely out of sight. In common 
with the other Southern writers we have mentioned, 
Simms lacked self-restraint and the power of self- 
criticism. 

Genius has been defined as the capacity for tak- 
ing pains; and perhaps it is because Southern writers 
have lacked this capacity that none of them has 

78 



Writers of Verse 

proved to be a genius. Elbert Hubbard says that 
Simms " courted oblivion — and won her " by return- 
ing to the South after having achieved some success 
in the North; but it is doubtful if this had anything 
to do with it. The truth is that Simms's work has 
lost its appeal because of its inherent defects, and 
there is no chance that its popularity will ever be re- 
gained. And yet, while his verse is negligible — al- 
though he always thought himself a greater poet than 
novelist — some of his tales of the Carolinas and the 
Southwest possess a rude power and interest deserv- 
ing of a better fate. Certainly Simms seems to have 
been the best imaginative writer the antebellum 
South produced. 

American imaginative literature to-day resembles 
a lofty plateau rather than a mountain range. It 
shows a high level of achievement, but no mighty 
peaks. Novelists and poets alike have learned how 
to use their tools ; they work with conviction — but in 
clay rather than in marble. In other words, they work 
without what we call inspiration; they have talent, 
but not genius. This is, perhaps, partly the fault of 
the age, which has come to place so high a value upon 
literary form that the quality of the material is often 
lost sight of. Let us hope that some day a genius will 
arise who will be great enough to disregard form and 
to strike out his own path across the domain of let- 
ters. 

Meanwhile, it is safe to advise boys and girls to 
spend their time over the old things rather than over 
the new ones. There is so much good literature in 

79 



A Guide to Biography 

the world that there is really no excuse for reading 
bad, and the latest novel will not give half the solid 
entertainment to be got from scores of the older ones. 
One of the most valuable and delightful things in the 
world is the power to appreciate good literature. To 
have worthy " friends on the shelf," in the shape of 
great books, is to insure oneself against loneliness and 
ennui. 

SUMMARY 

Bryant, William Cullen. Born at Cummington, 
Massachusetts, November 3, 1794; studied at Williams 
College, 1810-11; admitted to the bar, 1815; pub- 
lished " Thanatopsis," 1816; editor-in-chief New York 
Evening Post, 1829 ; published first collection of poems, 
1821, and others from time to time until his death, at 
New York City, June 12, 1878. 

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Born at Port- 
land, Maine, February 27, 1807; graduated at Bowdoin 
College, 1825 ; travelled in Europe, 1826-29 ; professor 
of modern languages at Bowdoin, 1829-35 ; professor 
of modern languages and helles Icttres at Harvard, 
1836-54; published "Voices of the Night," 1839; 
"Ballads and Other Poems," 1841; "Poems on Slav- 
ery," 1842 ; and many other collections of his poems, 
until his death at Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 
24, 1882. 

WiiiTTiER, John Greenleaf. Born at Haverhill, 
Massachusetts, December 17, 1807; attended Haverhill 
Academy ; edited " American Manufacturer," at Bos- 
ton, 1829; edited the Tlaverhill Gazette, 1830; became 

80 



Writers of Verse 

secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1836 ; 
member of Massachusetts legislature, 1835-36; settled 
at Amesbury, Massachusetts, 1840 ; published " Legends 
of New England," 1831; "Moll Pitcher," 1832; and 
many other collections of his poems until his death at 
Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, September 7, 1893. 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell. Born at Cambridge, 

Massachusetts, August 29, 1809 ; professor of anatomy 
and physiology. Harvard Medical School, 1847-82 
published " Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," 1858 
"Elsie Venner," 1861; "Songs in Many Keys," 1861 
and other collections of poems and essays ; died at Cam- 
bridge, October 7, 1894. 

Lowell, James Eussell. Born at Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, February 22, 1819; graduated at Har- 
vard, 1838 ; professor of belles lettres at Harvard, 1855 ; 
editor Atlantic Monthly, 1857-62; editor North Ameri- 
can Review, 1863-72 ; minister to Spain, 1877-80 ; min- 
ister to Great Britain, 1880-85 ; published " A Year's 
Life," 1841; "Vision of Sir Launfal," 1845; "A 
Fable for Critics," 1848; "The Biglow Papers," 1848; 
and many other collections of essays, criticisms, and 
poems; died at Cambridge, August 12, 1891. 

PoE, Edgar Allan. Born at Boston, January 19, 
1809 ; entered University of Virginia, 1826 ; ran away 
from home, 1827 ; published " Tamerlane and Other 
Poems, by a Bostonian," 1827; enlisted in the army 
as Edgar A. Perry, rising to rank of sergeant-major, 
1829; entered West Point, July 1, 1830; dismissed, 
March 6, 1831 ; married Virginia Clemm, 1835, who 
died in 1847; published " Poems," 1831; " Tales of the 

81 



A Guide to Biography 

Grotesque and Arabesque," 1840; died at Baltimore, 
October 7, 1849. 

Whitman, Walt or Walter. Born at West Hills, 
Long Island, May 31, 1819; a printer, carpenter, and 
journalist in early life; volunteered as army nurse, 
1861; seized with hospital malaria, 1864; held govern- 
ment position at Washington, 1864-73; disabled by 
paralysis and removed to Camden, New Jersey, where 
he died, March 26, 1892. "Leaves of Grass," pub- 
lished originally in 1855, was many times revised, a 
final edition appearing in 1892. 

Taylor, Bayard. Born at Kennett Square, Chester 
County, Pennsylvania, January 11, 1825; apprenticed 
to a printer, 1842; travelled on foot through Europe, 
1844-46; in Egypt, Asia Minor, and Syria, 1851-52; 
in India, China, and Japan, 1852-53; secretary of 
legation at St. Petersburg, 1862-63; minister to Ber- 
lin, 1878; died at Berlin, December 19, 1878. He pub- 
lished collections of poems and travel letters. 

Stedman, Edmund Clarence. Born at Hartford, 
Connecticut, October 8, 1833; entered Yale, 1839, leav- 
ing in junior year; was correspondent New York World, 
1861-63; later became stockbroker in New York City, 
retiring only a short time before his death in New 
York, January 18, 1908. Published several collections 
of poems. 

Aldrich, Thomas Bailey. Born at Portsmouth, 
New Hampshire, November 11, 1836; editor of Every 
Saturday, 1870-74; editor of The Atlantic Monthly, 
1881-90; published "Bells," 1855; "Ballad of Baby 
Bell," 1856; and many other collections of poetry, to- 

82 



Writers of Verse 

gether with several novels and collections of short 
stories; died March 19, 1907. 

Field, Eugene. Born at St. Louis, Missouri, Sep- 
tember 2, 1850; began newspaper work at age of twen- 
ty-three, and ten years later became associated with the 
Chicago Daily News, where most of his work appeared ; 
his first book of verse, " A Little Book of Western 
Verse," was published in 1889, and a number of others 
followed; died at Chicago, Illinois, November 4, 1895. 

EiLEY, James Whitcomb. Born at Greenfield, In- 
diana, 1853; entered journalism at Indianapolis, 1873; 
wrote first verses, 1875 ; first book of verse, " The Old 
Swimmin'-Hole and 'Leven More Poems," published in 
1883; numerous volumes since then. 

Laniee, Sidney. Born at Macon, Georgia, Febru- 
ary 3, 1842; served in Confederate Army, and suffered 
exposure which resulted in consumption; studied and 
practised law till 1873; then decided to devote life to 
music and poetry; played first flute in the Peabody 
Symphony Orchestra at Baltimore ; lecturer on English 
literature at Johns Hopkins University, 1879-81 ; com- 
plete poems published 1881 ; died at Lynn, North Caro- 
lina, September 7, 1881. 

TiMROD, Henry. Born at Charleston, South Caro- 
lina, December 8, 1829; educated at the University of 
Georgia, studied law and supported himself as a private 
tutor until the Civil War; war correspondent and then 
assistant editor of The South Carolinian, at Columbia, 
until Sherman burned the town; died at Columbia, 
South Carolina, October 6, 1867; his poems, edited by 
Paul Hamilton Hayne, published 1873. 

83 



A Guide to Biography 

Hayne, Paul Hamilton. Born at Charleston, South 
Carolina, January 1, 1830 ; graduated at the University 
of South Carolina, edited Russell's Magazine and the 
Literary Gazette, and served for a time in the Confed- 
erate Army; first poems published 1855; complete edi- 
tion, 1882; died near Augusta, Georgia, July 6, 1886. 

SiMMS, William Gilmorb. Born at Charleston, 
South Carolina, April 17, 1806; admitted to bar, 1827, 
but abandoned law for literature and journalism; first 
poems published 1827; resided at Hingham, Massa- 
chusetts, 1832-33, where longest poem, " Atalantis," 
was written ; first novel, " Martin Faber," published 
1833, and followed by many others; returned to South 
Carolina, 1833, and died at Charleston, June 11, 1870. 



84 



CHAPTER IV 

PAINTERS 

IF background and tradition are needed for litera- 
ture, they are even more needed for art, and it is 
curiously worth noting that the background and tra- 
ditions of England did not serve for her child across 
the sea. In both literature and art, so far as vital and 
significant achievement is concerned, the young na- 
tion had to find itself, and, starting from a rude and 
rough beginning, work its way uj)ward of its own 
strength. Perhaps in no other way may the youth 
of America be so completely realized as by the 
thought that all of real importance in both literature 
and art which she can boast has been produced 
within the past ninety years — little more than the 
three score years and ten which the Psalmist assigned 
as the span of a single life. 

We do not mean to say that European influence is 
not plainly to be traced in both our art and literature. 
There is a family resemblance, so to speak, as between 
a child and its parents, and yet the child has an in- 
dividuality of its own. In literature. Cooper, Poe, 
Hawthorne, Longfellow, Whitman are distinctively 
American; and, as we shall find, so are our masters 
of painting and sculpture. 

85 



A Guide to Biography 

American art begins with John Singleton Copley. 
There had been daubers before him, as there were 
after, but Copley was the first man born in America 
who produced paintings which the world still contem- 
plates with pleasure. Copley was born in Boston in 
1737, his father dying shortly afterwards, and his 
mother supporting herself by keeping a tobacco shop. 
About 1746 she married again, most fortunately for 
her son, for her second husband was Peter Pelham, 
a mezzotint engraver of considerable merit, who gave 
the boy lessons in drawing. He proved an apt and 
precocious pupil, and by the time he had reached sev- 
enteen had executed a number of portraits. 

Ilis reputation steadily increased, and his income 
from his work was so satisfactory that he hesitated 
to try his fortunes in the larger field of London. 
Finally, in 1774, he sailed for England, and in the 
next year sent for his family to join him there. The 
opening of the Revolution persuaded him to stay in 
England, as there would be no demand for his work 
in America in so tumultuous a time. In London 
his talents brought him ample patronage, his income 
enabled him to live the stately and dignified life he 
loved, so that, when the Revolution ended, there 
seemed no reason why he should abandon it for the 
crudities of Boston. He therefore continued in 
London imtil the end of his life, which came in 
1815. 

Copley was a laborious and painstaking craftsman, 
setting down what he saw upon canvas with uncom- 
promising sincerity. He worked very slowly and 

86 



Painters 

many stories are told of how he tried the patience of 
his sitters. The result was a series of portraits which 
preserve the very spirit of the age — serious, self- 
reliant and capable, pompous and lacking humor. 
His later work has an atmosphere and repose which 
his early work lacks, but it is less important to Amer- 
ica. His early portraits, which hang on the walls 
of so many Boston homes, and which Oliver Wendell 
Holmes called the titles of nobility of the old Bos- 
ton families, are priceless documents of history. 

Copley was an artist from choice rather than ne- 
cessity; he followed painting because it assured him 
a good livelihood, and he was a patient and pains- 
taking craftsman. His life was serene and happy; 
he was without the tribulations, as he seems to have 
been without the enthusiasms of the great artist. 
Not so with his most famous contemporary, Benjamin 
West, whose life was filled to overflowing with the 
contrast and picturesqueness which Copley's lacked. 

West was born in 1738 at a little Pennsylvania 
frontier settlement. His parents were Quakers, and 
to the rigor and simplicity of frontier life were 
added those of that sect. But even these handicaps 
could not turn the boy aside from his vocation, for 
he was a born painter, if there ever was one. At 
the age of six he tried to draw, with red and black 
ink, a likeness of a baby he had been set to watch ; a 
year later, a party of friendly Indians, amused by 
some sketches of birds and leaves he showed them, 
taught him how to prepare the red and yellow colors 
which they used on their ornaments. His mother fur- 

87 



A Guide to Biogi'aplij 

nished some indigo, brushes were secured by clipping 
the family cat — no doubt greatly to its disgust — and 
with these crude materials he set to work. 

His success won him the present of a box of 
paints from a relative in Philadelphia. With that 
treasure the boy lived and slept, and his mother, 
finally discovering that he was running away from 
school, found him in the garret with a picture before 
him which she refused to let him finish lest he 
should spoil it. That painting was preserved to be 
exhibited sixty-six years later. 

The boy's talent was so evident, and his determi- 
nation to be a painter so fixed, that his parents finally 
overcame their scruples against an occupation which 
they considered vain and useless, and sent him to 
Philadelphia. There he lived as frugally as possible, 
saving his money for a trip to Italy, and finally, at 
the age of twenty-two, set sail for Europe. 

His success there was immediate. He gained 
friends in the most influential circles, spent three 
years in study in Italy, and going to London in 
1764, received so many commissions that he decided 
to liv'e there permanently. He wrote home for his 
father to join him, and to bring with him a Miss 
Shewell, to whom AVest was betrothed. He also 
wrote to the young lady, stating that his father would 
sail at a certain time, and asking her to join him. 
The letter fell into the hands of Miss Shewell's 
brother, who objected to West for some reason, and 
who promptly locked the girl in her room. Three 
friends of West's concluded that this outrage upon 

88 



Painters 

true love was not to be endured, smuggled a rope- 
ladder to her, and got her out of the house and 
safely on board the vessel. These three friends 
were Benjamin Franklin, Francis Hopkinson and 
William White, the latter the first Bishop of the 
American Episcopal Church, and the exploit was one 
which they were always proud to remember. Miss 
Shewell reached London safely and the lovers were 
happily married. 

Meanwhile West's success had been given a sud- 
den impetus by his introduction to King George III. 
The two men became lifelong friends, and the King 
gave him commission after commission, culminating 
in a command to decorate the Royal Chapel at Wind- 
sor. His first reverse came when the King's mind 
began to fail. His commissions were cancelled and 
his pensions stopped. He was dej)osed from the 
Presidency of the Royal Academy, which he had 
founded, and was for a time in needy circumstances; 
but the tide soon turned, and his last years were 
marked by the production of a number of great 
paintings. He died at the age of eighty-two, and 
was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral with splendid 
ceremonies. So ended one of the, most remarkable 
careers in history. 

West was, perhaps, more notable as a man than 
as an artist, for his fame as a painter has steadily 
declined. His greatest service to art was the ex- 
ample he set of painting historical groups in the 
costume of the period instead of in the vestments 
of the early Romans, as had been the custom. This 

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A Guide to Biography 

innovation was made by him in his picture of the 
death of General Wolfe, and created no little dis- 
turbance. His friends, including Reynolds, protested 
against such a desecration of tradition; even the 
King questioned him, and West replied that the 
painter should be bound by truth as well as the his- 
torian, and to represent a group of English soldiers 
in the year 1758 as dressed in classic costume was 
absurd. After the picture was completed, Reynolds 
was the first to declare that West had won, and that 
his picture would occasion a revolution in art — as, 
indeed, it did. 

It is difficult to understand the habit of thought 
which insisted on clothing great men in garments 
they could never by any possibility have worn, yet 
it persisted until a comparatively late day. The most 
famous example in this country is Greenough's statue 
of Washington, just outside the Capitol. One looks 
at it with a certain sense of shock, for the Father 
of His Country is sitting half-naked, in a great arm 
chair, with some drapery over his legs, and a fold 
hanging over one shoulder. We shall have occasion 
in the next chapter to speak of it and of its maker. 

Another of West's services to art was the whole- 
hearted way in which he extended a helping hand 
to any who needed it. He was always willing to 
give such instruction as he could, and among his 
l)upils were at least four men who added not a little 
to American art — Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert 
Stuart, John Trumbull, and Thomas Sully. 

Peale was born in Maryland in 1741, and was, 
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Painters 

among other things, a saddler, a coach-maker, a 
clock-maker and a silversmith. He finally decided to 
add painting to his other accomplishments, so he 
secured some painting materials and a book of in- 
structions and set to work. In 1770, a number of 
gentlemen of Annapolis furnished him with enough 
money to go to England, a loan which he promised 
to repay with pictures upon his return. West re- 
ceived him kindly, and when Peale's money gave out, 
as it soon did, welcomed him into his own house. 
Peale remained in London for four years, returning 
to America in time to join Washington as a captain 
of volunteers, and to take part in the battles of 
Trenton and Germantown. 

After the war he continued painting, but, in 1801, 
his mind, always alert for new experiences, was led 
away in a strange direction. The bones of a mam- 
moth were discovered in Ulster County, !New York, 
and Peale secured possession of them, had them 
taken to Philadelphia, and started a museum. It 
rapidly increased in size, for all sorts of curiosities 
poured in upon him, and he began a series of lec- 
tures on natural history, which, whether learned 
or not, proved so interesting that large and dis- 
tinguished audiences gathered to hear him. In 1805, 
he founded the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine 
Arts, the oldest and most flourishing institution of 
the kind in the country. He lived to a hale old 
age, never having known sickness, and dying as the 
result of incautious exposure. Like West, his life 
is more interesting than his work, for while he 

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A Guide to Biography 

painted fairly good portraits, tliey were the work 
rather of a skilled craftsman than of an artist. 

The second of West's pupils whom we have men- 
tioned, Gilbert Stuart, was by far the greatest of the 
earlier artists. He was born near Newport, R. I., in 
1755, his father being a Jacobite refugee from Scot- 
land. He began to paint at an early age, worked 
faithfully at drawing, and finally, at the age of nine- 
teen, began portrait painting in earnest. One of his 
first pictures was a striking example of a remarkable 
characteristic, the power of visual memory, which he 
retained through his whole life. His gTandmother 
had died five or six years before, but he painted a 
portrait of her, producing so striking a likeness that 
it immediately brought him orders for others. But 
Newport had grown distasteful to him, and in 1775, 
he started for London. 

How he got there is not certainly known, but get 
there he did, without money or friends, or much 
hope of making either, and for three years lived a 
precarious life, earning a little money, borrowing 
what he could, twice imprisoned for debt, and with it 
all so gay and brilliant and talented that those he 
wronged most loved him most. Finally, he was in- 
troduced to Benjamin West, and found in him an 
invaluable friend and patron. For nearly four years, 
Stuart worked as West's student and assistant, 
steadily improving in drawing, developing a tech- 
nique of astonishing merit, and, more than that, one 
that was all liis own. 

His portraits soon attracted attention, and at the 
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STUART 



Painters 

end of a few years, he was earning a large income. 
But he squandered it so recklessly that he was finally 
forced to flee to Ireland to escape his creditors. They 
pursued him, threw him into prison, and the legend 
is that he painted most of the Irish aristocracy in 
his cell in the Dublin jail. 

At last, in 1792, he returned to America, animated 
by a desire to paint a portrait of "Washington. Ar- 
rangements for a sitting were made, but it is related 
that Stuart, although he had painted many famous 
men and was at ease in most society, found himself 
strangely embarrassed in Washington's presence. 
The President was kindly and courteous, but the 
portrait was a failure. He tried again, and produced 
the portrait which remains to this day the accepted 
likeness of the First American. You will find it as 
the frontispiece to " Men of Action," and it is worth 
examining closely, for it is an example of art rarely 
surpassed, as well as a remarkable portrait of our 
most remarkable citizen. 

Gilbert Stuart still holds his place among the 
greatest of American portrait painters. His heads, 
painted simply and without artifice, and yet with 
high imagination, are unsurpassed; they possess in- 
sight, they accomplish that greatest of all tasks, the 
delineation of character. Stuart's portraits — as 
every portrait must, to be truly great — show not only 
how his sitters looked but what they were. Art can 
accomplish no more than that. 

The anecdotes which are told of him are innumer- 
able, and most of them have to do with his hot 

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A Guide to Biography 

temper, which grew hotter and hotter as his years 
increased and he became more and more a public 
character. One day, a loving husband, whose wife 
Stuart had put on canvas in an unusually uncom- 
promising way, complained that the portrait did not 
do her justice. 

" What an infernal business is this of a portrait 
painter," Stuart cried, at last, his patience giving 
way. " You bring him a potato and expect him to 
paint you a peach! " 

But look at his portrait at the beginning of this 
chapter, and you will see a witty and kindly old 
gentleman, as well as an irascible one. 

John Trumbull was a student of West's at the 
same time that Stuart was. He was a year younger, 
and was a son of that Jonathan Trumbull, after- 
wards governor of Connecticut, whose title of 
Brother Jonathan, given him by Washington, became 
afterwards a sort of national nickname. He was an 
infant prodigy, graduating from Harvard at an age 
when most boys were entering, and afterwards going 
to Boston to take lessons from Copley. The out- 
break of the Revolution stopped his studies; he en- 
listed in the army, won rapid promotion, and finally 
resigned in a huff because he thought his commission 
as colonel incorrectly dated. 

In 1780, he sailed for France, on his way to 
London, met Benjamin Franklin in Paris and from 
him secured a letter of introduction to Benjamin 
West, who welcomed him with his unfailing cordial- 
ity; but he had scarcely commenced his studies when 

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Painters 

lie was arrested and thrown into prison. The reason 
was the arrest and execution at New York of Major 
Andre, who was captured with Benedict Arnold's 
treasonable correspondence hidden in his boot, and 
who w^as hanged as a spy. Knowing that Trumbull 
had been an officer in the American army, and anx- 
ious to avenge Andre's death, the King ordered his 
arrest, but West interceded for him and secured his 
release several weeks later. 

Warned that England was unsafe for him, Trum- 
bull returned to America and remained there until 
after the close of the Revolution. The beginning 
of 1784 saw him again in London, at work on his 
two famous paintings, " The Battle of Bunker Hill " 
and " The Death of General Montgomery," and from 
that time until his death he was occupied almost ex- 
clusively with the painting of pictures illustrating 
events in American history — " The Surrender of 
Cornwallis," " The Battle of Princeton," " The Cap- 
ture of the Hessians at Trenton," to mention only 
three. In 1816 he received a commission to paint 
four of the eight commemorative pictures in the 
Capitol at Washington, and completed the last 
one eight years later, this being his last important 
work. 

Trumbull is in no respect to be compared with 
Gilbert Stuart, but his work was done with a pains- 
taking accuracy which makes it valuable as a histor- 
ical document. For the personages of his pictures 
he painted a great number of miniatures from life, 
which, in many cases, are the only surviving present- 

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A Guide to Biography 

ments of some of the most prominent men of the 
time. 

After Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully was by far 
the greatest of the men who studied in West's studio. 
Stuart aside, there was no American painter of the 
day to equal him. He was born in England in 1783, 
but was brought to this country by his parents at 
the age of nine. The Sullys were actors of some 
talent and secured an engagement at Charleston, 
South Carolina, and there the boy was placed first in 
school, and then in the ofRce of an insurance broker. 
He spent so much time making sketches that his 
employer decided he was destined for art and not 
for business, and secured another clerk. 

Young Sully thoroughly agreed with this and 
started out to be an artist. He had no money, nor 
means of earning any, but he managed to secure 
some desultory instruction, and this, added to his 
native talent, enabled him to begin to paint portraits 
for which uncritical persons were willing to pay. But 
it was a hard road, and none was more conscious 
of his deficiencies than himself. He knew that he 
needed training, and finally started for England with 
a purse of four hundred dollars in his pocket, which 
had been subscribed by friends, who were each to 
be repaid by a copy of an old master. 

Arrived at London, Sully at once got himself in- 
troduced to Benjamin West, who received him " like 
a father," admitted him to his studio, and aided him 
in many ways. He remained there, painting by day, 
drawing by night, studying anatomy in every spare 

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Painters 

moment, and living on bread and potatoes and water 
in order to make bis money last as long as possible. 
At tbe end of nine montlis it was gone, and he was 
forced to return to America. 

But those nine months of study had given him 
just what he needed, and his talent soon gained recog- 
nition. Orders poured in upon him at good prices ; 
and though his prosperity afterwards dwindled some- 
what, he never again experienced the pangs of pov- 
erty. He made Philadelj^hia his home, and for nearly 
half a century occupied a house on Chestnut Street 
which had been built for him by Stephen Girard. 
His work is in every way worthy of respect — firm 
and serious and rich with a warm and mellow 
color. 

Benjamin West had many other pupils — indeed, 
his studio was a sort of incubator for American art- 
ists — but none of them won any permanent fame. 
One, Washington Allston, achieved considerable con- 
temporary reputation, but it seems to have resulted 
more from his own winning personality than from 
his work. He possessed a charm which fairly dazzled 
all who met him, notably Coleridge and Washington 
Irving, His smaller canvasses, graceful figures or 
heads, to which he attached little importance, are 
more admired to-day than his more ambitious ones. 

Another pupil was John Vanderlyn, of Dutch 
stock, as his name shows, a protege of Aaron Burr, 
and the painter of the best known portrait of his 
daughter, Theodosia, as well as of Burr himself. 
AVhen Burr, an outcast in fortune and men's eyes, 

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A Guide to Biography 

fled to Paris, Vanderlyn, who had made some reputa- 
tion there, was able to repay, to some extent, the 
kindness which Burr had shown him. His work 
shows care and serious thought, but his last years 
were embittered by the indifference of the public, 
and he died in want. 

That versatile genius and hale old man, Charles 
Willson Peale, to whom we have already referred, 
had many children, and he christened them with most 
distinguished names, so that, in the end, he could 
boast himself the father of Raphael, Rembrandt, 
Rubens and Titian. Alas that the name does not 
make the man! Only one of them, Rembrandt, 
achieved any distinction in art, and that but a faint 
and far-off reflection of the master whose name he 
bore. 

Like his father, he was interested in many things 
besides his art; he conducted a museum at Baltimore, 
introduced illuminating gas there, wrote voluminous 
memoirs, and, living until 1860, became a sort of 
dean of the profession. An example of his work will 
be found in " Men of Action," the likeness of Thomas 
Jefferson given there being a reproduction from a 
portrait painted by him. His portraits are not held 
in high estimation at the present day, lor, while 
correct enough in drawing, they show little insight. 
"VVe have come to demand something more than me- 
chanical skill, and that " something more," which 
makes the artist and divides him from the artisan, 
is exactly what Rembrandt Pealc did not possess. 

98 



Painters 

It is interesting, too, to note that one of the most 
promising painters of the time was S. F, B. Morse. 
In the Yale School of Fine Arts hangs a portrait of 
Mrs. De Forest, and in the New York Citj Hall one 
of Lafayette, both of them from his brush, and both 
not unworthy the best traditions of American art. 
But a chance conversation about electricity turned 
his thoughts in that direction, and he abandoned 
painting for invention — the result being the electric 
telegraph. We shall speak of him further in the 
chapter on inventors. 

The passing of Washington Allston and his group 
marked the end of Benjamin West's influence, and, 
in a way, of English influence, on American paint- 
ing. It marked, too, a lapse in interest, for it was a 
long time before it found for itself an adequate mode 
of expression. There are, however, two or three men 
of the period whom we must mention, not so much 
because of their achievements, which had little sig- 
nificance, as because of their remarkable and inspir- 
ing lives. 

Chester Harding, reared on the N'ew York frontier, 
a typical back-woodsman, by turns a peddler, a 
tavern-keeper, and house-painter, and a failure at all 
of them, got so deeply in debt that he ran away to 
Pittsburg to escape his creditors, and there, to his 
amazement, one day saw an itinerant painter paint- 
ing a portrait. Before that, he had secured work 
of some sort, and his ^vife had joined him. Filled 
with admiration for the artist's work, he procured a 

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A Guide to Biography 

board and some paint, and sat down to paint a 
portrait of his wife. He actually did produce a like- 
ness, and, delighted at the result, practiced a while 
longer, and then, proceeding to Paris, Kentucky — 
perhaps through some association of the name with 
the great art centre of Europe — boldly announced 
himself as a portrait painter, and got about a hundred 
people to pay him twenty-five dollars apiece to paint 
them. 

He spent some time at Cincinnati, and got as far 
west as St. Louis, where he journeyed nearly a hun- 
dred miles to find Daniel Boone living in his log 
cabin on his Missouri land, and painted the portrait 
of that old pioneer which is reproduced in " Men 
of Action." Boone was at that time ninety years of 
age, and Harding found him living almost alone, 
roasting a piece of venison on the end of his ramrod, 
as had been his custom all his life. 

One of the most surprising things in the history 
of American art is the facility with which men of 
all trades turned to portrait painting, apparently as 
a last resort, and managed to make a living at it. 
During the first half of the last century, the country 
seems to have been overrun with wandering portrait 
painters, whose only equipment for the art was some 
paint and a bundle of brushes. They had, for the 
most part, no training, and that anyone, in a time 
when money was scarce and hardly earned, should 
have paid it out for the wretched daubs these men 
produced is a great mystery. But they did pay it 
out, and, as we have seen, Harding earned no less 

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Painters 

than twenty-five hundred dollars in a comparatively 
short time. 

With such of this money as he had been able to 
save, he went to Philadelphia and spent two months 
in study there; then he returned to his old home, 
and astonished his neighbors by paying his debts. 
He astonished them still more when they found he 
was making money by painting portraits, for which 
he now charged forty dollars each, and his aged 
grandfather felt obliged to protest. 

" Chester," he said, having called him aside so 
that none could overhear, " I want to speak to you 
about your present mode of life, I think it no 
better than swindling to charge forty dollars for 
one of those effigies. Now I want you to give up 
this way of living and settle down on a farm and 
become a respectable man." 

However excellent this advice may have been, 
Chester had gone too far to heed it. He had decided 
to go to England, but he stayed in America long 
enough to earn money to buy a farm for his parents 
and to settle his own family at Northampton. This 
duty accomplished, he set sail for London, and his 
success there was immediate, due as much to his re- 
markable personality as to his work. He returned 
to America in 1826, and spent the rest of his life 
here, painting most of the political leaders of the 
country. It has been said of his portraits that his 
heads are as solid as iron and his coats as uncom- 
promising as tin, while his faces shine like burnished 
platters. 

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A Guide to Biography 

Remarkable as Harding's story is, it is no more 
so tlian that of many of his contemporaries. Francis 
Alexander, for instance, born in Connecticut in 1800, 
a farm boy and afterwards a school teacher, never 
attempted painting until he was over twenty. Then 
one day, having caught a pickerel, its beauty re- 
minded him of a box of water-colors a boy had left 
him, and he attempted to paint the fish, with such 
success that he was filled with amazement and de- 
light, lie practiced a while longer, decorating the 
white-washed walls of a room with rude landscapes 
filled with cattle, horses, sheep, hogs and chickens. 
All the neighbors came to see his work and marvelled 
at it, though none of them cared to have his house 
similarly decorated; but finally one of them offered 
Alexander five dollars if he would paint a full-length 
portrait of a child. 

Other orders followed, and finally with sixty dol- 
lars in his pocket, he started for New York. Some 
years later, he sought Gilbert Stuart, at Boston, got 
some systematic instruction and ended by painting 
very passable portraits. 

Some amusing stories are told of the persistency 
with which he hunted for orders. In 1842, Charles 
Dickens visited America for the first time, v.iid while 
his ship was yet out of sight of land, the pilot 
clambered on board, and after him Alexander, who 
begged the great novelist for the privilege of paint- 
ing his portrait. Dickens, amused at his enterprise, 
consented, and Alexander's studio, during the sit- 
tings, became the centre of literary Boston. It is 

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Painters 

a curious commentary upon Alexander's development 
that, after a trip or two abroad, be professed to find 
the crudities of bis native land unbearable, and spent 
bis last years in Italy. 

A tbird self-made artist was Jolm Neagle, wbose 
portrait of Gilbert Stuart, wbicli beads tliis cbapter, 
is tbe best tbat exists. Neagle was apprenticed, 
wben a boy, to a coacb-painter, and soon was spend- 
ing bis spare time practicing a more ambitious 
brancb of tbe painting profession. As soon as be was 
tbrougb his apprenticeship he set up as a portrait 
painter, and travelled over tbe mountains to Lexing- 
ton, Kentucky, hoping to fare as well as Harding 
bad. But be found tbe field already pre-empted by 
two other painters, one of whom, Matthew Jouett, 
was an artist of considerable skill. 

ISTeagle bad a hard time getting back home again, 
but he finally reached Philadelphia, and spent most 
of the remainder of bis life there. Practice and 
study gave him a certain skill; be visited Boston and 
had the advantage of some instruction from Gilbert 
Stuart, but bis work remained to tbe end inferior 
to either Harding's or Alexander's. 

Henry Inman bad a more varied talent than any 
of these men, for besides portraits he painted genre 
scenes and landscapes, and excelled in all of them. 
At the age of fourteen, he had been apprenticed to 
a painter by the name of John Wesley Jarvis, a 
picturesque character, better remembered by his 
anecdotes than by his work; and wben his appren- 
ticeship was over he bes;an painting on his own 

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A Guide to Biography 

accoimt in New York and afterwards in Pliiladel- 
phia. For a time his popularity was very great 
and his income large; but reverses came, ill health 
followed, and he died in poverty at the age of 
forty-five. 

It is worth noting that, np to this time, practi- 
cally no landscapes had been produced by American 
artists. A few of them had tried their hands at 
landscape work, but soon abandoned it for the more 
profitable field of portraiture. The first of the 
American school of landscapists may be fairly said 
to be Asher Brown Durand. Durand was the eighth 
of eleven children, and his father, who managed a 
small farm on the slope of Orange Mountain, in New 
Jersey, was renowned throughout the neighborhood 
for his mechanical ingenuity. Much of this inge- 
nuity his son inherited, and his first artistic effort 
was an attempt to reproduce the woodcuts in his 
school books by engraving them on little plates 
which he had beaten out of copper cents. This led 
to his being apprenticed to an engraver, and after his 
apprenticeship was over, he devoted three years to 
engraving the plate of Trumbull's " Signing of 
the Declaration of Independence." The work 
was excellently done and established Durand's repu- 
tation. 

But he was not satisfied with engraving, and soon 
abandoned it for the more creative work of paint- 
ing. He tried his hand first at portraiture, in which 
he had considerable success; but he turned more and 
more to landscape work as the years went on. He 

104 



Painters 

practiced it continuously nntil his eighty-third year. 
Then he laid down his brnsh forever, saying, " My 
hand will no longer do my bidding," and the remain- 
ing seven years of his life were passed peacefully on 
the farm where he was born. 

Durand's work is marked throughout by sincerity 
and skill, if not by genius. His portraits were in a 
style especially his own, thorough in workmanship, 
delicately modelled and strongly painted. His land- 
scapes, too, are his own, clearly and definitely fin- 
ished, and with a bewitching silvery gray tone, which 
could have come only by painting direct from his 
subject in the open air, a practice exceptional at the 
time. His pictures are not " compositions," in the 
artistic sense of the term — that is, he did not com- 
bine detail into a balanced whole; they are rather 
studies or sketches from nature, with a central point 
of interest. But the work is done so truly and with 
such patience and enthusiasm that it deserves the 
sincerest admiration. 

Joined with Durand as the earliest of the land- 
scapists in Thomas Cole. Cole was born in England 
and did not come to America until he had reached 
his nineteenth year, but he afterwards became so 
good an American that he declared he would give 
his left hand to have been identified with America 
by birth instead of adoption. He found employ- 
ment in Philadelphia as an engraver. Then, after 
some practice, he got together a kit of painting mate- 
rials, and started to tramp about the country as a 
portraitist. He found the woods full of them, and 

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A Guide to Biography 

competition so fierce that he was unable to make 
a living; but, determining to be an artist at any cost, 
he returned to Philadelphia and passed a fearful win- 
ter there, living on bread and water, half frozen by 
the cold, with only a cloth table-cover for overcoat 
and bed, and suffering tortures from inflammatory 
rheumatism. A second trying winter followed, but 
in the spring of 1825 he removed to New York, 
and his privations were at an end. 

For in those years of suffering he had developed 
a delicate art as a landscapist, and he found a ready 
sale for his pictures, at first at low prices, it is true ; 
but his fame spread rapidly, and he was able, in 
1829, to go abroad and spend three years in Italy 
and England. He lived only to the age of forty- 
seven, his last years being passed principally in his 
studio in the Catskills, where some of his most fa- 
mous pictures were painted. 

Cole was widely known for many years for the 
various series of moral and didactic pictures which 
he was fond of painting. Perhaps the most famous 
of these was his " Voyage of Life," showing infancy, 
youth, manhood, and old age floating down the 
stream of time. The taste of the period approved 
them, and they were especially popular for school- 
rooms, lecture-halls and other places where youth 
would have a chance to gaze upon and gather edi- 
fication from them. It has since come to be recog- 
nized that the proper way to tell a story is by words 
and not by pictures, and " The Voyage of Life," and 
" Course of Empire," and " The Cross and the 

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Painters 

World " have, for the most part, been relegated to the 
attic. 

Durand and Cole were the founders of the famous 
Hudson River, or White Mountain school, which 
loomed so large in American art half a century ago. 
Its members, now rather regarded in the light of 
primitives, gloried in the views of the Hudson, espe- 
cially as seen from the Catskills, and journeyed into 
the wilds of the Rockies and the Yellowstone in 
search of sublime subjects — too sublime to be trans- 
ferred to canvas. They loved nature — loved to copy 
her minutely and literally, loved to live in her hills 
and woods. Some of them came afterwards to see 
that, after all, this was not art, or only one of her 
lower forms — that to achieve a great result, a pic- 
ture must express an idea. 

Cole had a pupil and disciple, who did some admir- 
able work, in Frederick Edwin Church. Church was 
born in 1826, and lived with Cole in his house in 
the Catskills until the latter's death. He then estab- 
lished himself in New York, and proceeded to visit 
the four corners of the earth in search for grandiose 
scenes. For he made the mistake of thinking that 
the greatness of a landscape lay in its subject rather 
than in its execution; so he painted views of the 
Andes, and Niagara, and Cotopaxi, and Chimborazo, 
and the Parthenon, throwing in rainbows and sunsets 
and mists for good measure. Tliese pictures were wel- 
comed with the wildest enthusiasm — just as Clarke 
Mills's statue of General Jackson had been, fifteen 
years before. Strange to say, they were not absurd, 

107 



A Guide to Biography 

as that amazing figure is, "but were really fine exam- 
ples of clever handling and of a true, if untrained, 
feeling. 

Two men attempted to duplicate Church's suc- 
cess, but with very indifferent result. They were 
Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran. The former 
sought the Rocky Mountains for his subjects; the 
latter, the Yosemite and the Yellowstone; but nei- 
ther of them succeeded in transferring to canvas 
more than a pale and unconvincing presentment of 
the wonders of those regions. 

Durand also had a disciple, more famous than 
Cole's, in Frederick Kensett, the best known of the 
so-called Hudson River school. He was a close fol- 
lower of Durand in believing that nature should be 
literally rendered, but he missed the truth of the 
older man by working in his studio from drawings 
and sketches, instead of in the open air direct from 
his subject. So he got into the habit of painting all 
shadows a transparent brown, and of making his 
rocks and trees brilliant by touching in high-lights 
where he thought they ought to be instead of where 
they actually should have been. He surpassed Du- 
rand, however, in his range of subject, for all hours 
and seasons had their charm for him, while Durand 
was really at home only in the full light of a summer 
day. 

On this foundation a loftier structure was soon 
built and the builders were George Inness, Alex- 
ander Wyant and Homer D. Martin. Inness was the 
oldest of the three, having been born in 1825, and 

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Painters 

was contemporary with some of the most arbitrary 
and hide-bound of the nature copyists. But he felt 
the weakness of the method and himself attained a 
much fuller and completer art. He seems to have 
dabbled with paint and brushes from his youth, but 
had little i-egular instruction, studying, for the most 
part, from prints of old pictures, and finally, in 
1847, getting a chance to see the original when a 
friend offered to send him to Europe. He passed 
fifteen months in Rome, and afterwards a year at 
Paris. 

A long period of assimilation followed, in which 
he developed a theory of art and struggled to trans- 
fer it to canvas. It was a sound and true theory, 
and is worth setting down here for its own sake. 
" The purpose of the painter," Inness held, " is to 
reproduce in other minds the impression which a 
scene had made upon him. A work of art docs not 
appeal to the intellect or to the moral sense. Its aim 
is not to instruct, not to edify, but to awaken an 
emotion. It must be a single emotion, if the work 
has unity, as every such work should have, and the 
true beauty of the work consists in the beauty of the 
sentiment or emotion which, it inspires. Its real 
greatness consists in the quality and force of this 
emotion." 

To the very last, Inness's work was changing and 
developing to fit this theory. He steadily gained 
mastery of tone and breadth of handling, of true 
harmony, and it is his crowning merit that he does 
to some extent succeed in " reproducing in other 

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A Guide to Biography 

minds the impression which the scene made upon 
him." 

Alexander H. Wyant was a pupil of Inness, jour- 
neying from the little Ohio town where he was born 
to see him and to ask for advice and aid, which 
Inness freely gave. Wyant's boyhood had been the 
American artist's usual one — an early fondness for 
drawing, a little practice, and then setting up as a 
painter. In 1873 he joined an expedition to Ari- 
zona and 'New Mexico. The hardships which he 
endured resulted in a stroke of paralysis and he was 
never again able to use his right hand. With an 
inspiring patience, he set to work to learn to use his 
left hand, and grew to be more skillful with it than 
he had been with his right. 

But even at his best, Wyant's appeal is more lim- 
ited than Inness's. He learned to paint a typical 
picture, a glimpse of rolling country seen between 
the trunks of tall and slender birches or maples, and 
was content to paint variations of it over and over. 
That he sometimes did it superbly cannot be denied, 
and he possessed a certain delicate refinement, an 
ability to throw upon his pictures the silvery shim- 
mer of summer sunshine, in which no other Ameri- 
can artist has ever surpassed him. 

The third, and in some respects the most interest- 
ing member of the group is Homer D. Martin. Born 
in Albany in 1838, he turned naturally to painting 
and began to produce pictures after only two weeks' 
instruction. At first, he was a disciple of Kensett, 
with brown shadows and artificial high-lights, but 

110 



Painters 

study of nature soon cured these mannerisms, and he 
grew steadily in skill and power, until he succeeded 
in imparting to his pictures the deep, grave and so- 
bering sentiment, which is the keynote of his work. 
His coast views, with their swirl and almost audible 
thunder of billow, are considered his crowning 
achievements. 

This culmination of the Hudson River school 
brings us fairly to our own times and to the work of 
men still living, for the period just preceding and 
following the Civil War was marked by no new im- 
pulse in American art and by no work which de- 
mands attention. But in the early seventies, there 
were a number of Americans studying at home or in 
Europe who have since won a wide rej^utation for 
inspiring achievement. 

Foremost among these is Elihu Vedder, born in 
'New York City in 1836, and following, in his man- 
hood, the manifest bent of his childish years. He 
went to Paris before he was of age, and from there 
to Rome, where he spent five years. The five suc- 
ceeding years were spent in America, and finally, 
in 1866, he settled in Rome and has since made it 
his home. He represents a revival of the classical 
quality of Raphael or Michael Angelo, though he be- 
longs to no school, and his work has from the very 
first possessed a distinct originality. He has held to 
the old simplicity, which minimized detail and ex- 
alted the subject. General recognition came to him in 
1884, when he jiublished his illustrations to the 
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam — the most sympathetic 

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A Guide to Biography 

and beautiful pictorial comment which has ever been 
given any book of poetry. Since then he has exe- 
cuted much decorative work of a high order, though 
the mastery in this branch of the art is held by an- 
other. 

That other is John LaFarge, admittedly the great- 
est mural painter the world has seen in recent years. 
His life was a fortunate one. His father, an officer 
of the French marine, came to this country in 1806, 
married, and purchased a great plantation in Louisi- 
ana, from which he derived a large revenue. His 
son, born in 1835, grew up in an artistic atmosphere 
of books and pictures, and was early taught to draw. 
When, after some study of law, he visited Paris, his 
father advised him to take up the study of art as an 
accomplishment, and he entered one of the studios, 
merely as an amateur, at the same time gaining ad- 
mittance, through his family connections, to the 
inner artistic circles of the capital. For some years 
he studied art, not to become a painter, but because 
he wished to understand and appreciate gi*eat work, 
and at the end of that time, he returned to New York 
and entered a lawyer's office. 

But he was ill at ease there, and finally definitely 
decided upon an artistic career, went to Newport and 
worked under the guidance of William Morris Hunt, 
painting everything, but turning in the end to 
decorative work, and afterwards to stained glass. In 
these he has had no equal, and his high achievement, 
as well as the wide appreciation his work has won, is 
peculiarly grateful to Americans, since LaFarge's 

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Painters 

career has been characteristically American. He had 
little actual study in Europe, and yet possesses cer- 
tain great traditions of the masters to a degree un- 
equalled by any compatriot. 

Of his work as a whole, it is dithcult to speak 
adequately. Perhaps its most striking characteristic 
is the thought that is lavished u})on it, so that the 
artist gives us the very spirit of his subjects. In 
inspiration, in handling, in drawing, and in color, 
LaFarge stands alone. !No man of his generation 
has equalled him in the power to lift the spectator out 
of himself and into an enchanted world by the con- 
summate harmony of strong, pure color. This feel- 
ing for cohjr cuhnimited in liis stained-glass work — 
probably the richest color creations that have ever 
been fashioned on tin's earth. In all his varied mass 
of production there is nothing that lacks interest and 
charm. 

We have referred to LaFarge's study under 
William Morris Hunt, and we must pause for a mo- 
ment to speak of the older artist. His artistic career 
was in some respects an accident, for, developing a 
tendency to consumption in his late boyhood, his 
mother took him to Rome and remained there long 
enough to enable him to imbibe some of the artistic 
traditions of the Eternal City and to begin work with 
H. K. Brown, the sculptor. He found the work so 
congenial that he persuaded his mother to omit the 
course at Harvard which had been expected of him, 
and to permit him to devote his life to art. 

For five or six years thereafter, he studied at 
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A Guide to Biography 

Home and Paris, then for three years he was with 
Millet at Barbizon. Finally, in 1855, he returned to 
America, settling first at Newport and afterwards 
at Boston. He painted many portraits and figure 
pieces, and was an active social and artistic influence 
to the day of his death. As an artist, he lacked train- 
ing, and remained to the end an amateur of great 
promise, which was never quite fulfilled. 

And this brings us to the most eccentric, the most 
striking, and in some respects the greatest artist of 
his time — James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Whis- 
tler was born at Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1834. His 
grandfather, of an English family long settled in 
Ireland, had been a member of Burgoyne's invading 
army, but afterwards joined the American service, 
and, after the close of the Revolution, settled at 
Lowell. His father was a distinguished engineer, and 
major in the army, and after his death in 1849, it 
was natural that young Whistler should turn to the 
army as a career. He entered West Point in 1851, 
remained there three years, and was finally dropped 
for deficiency in chemistry. 

There was one study, however, in which he had 
distinguished himself, and that was drawing; and 
after his dismissal he went to Paris, where he studied 
for two or three years. Then he removed to London, 
where most of the remainder of his life was spent. 
His work, striking and original, was at first utterly 
misunderstood by the public. The most famous piece 
of hostile criticism to which he was subjected was 
Kuskin's remark, after looking at " The Falling 

114 



Painters 

Rocket " in 1877, that here was a fellow with the 
effrontery to charge a hundred guineas for flinging 
a pot of paint in the public's face. Some further 
years of abuse followed, and then the pendulum 
swung the other way, and the eccentric artist became 
a sort of cult. In the end, he won a wide reputation, 
and before his death was recognized as one of the 
leading painters of his time. 

And this reputation was deserved, for his work 
possesses a rare and delicate beauty, individual to it. 
His portraits of his mother and of Thomas Carlyle 
are admirable in their simplicity and quiet dignity; 
and many of his " harmonies," as he liked to call 
them, are so complete and flawless that they are works 
of pure delight. Whistler always declared that he 
had no desire to reproduce external nature, but only 
beautiful combinations of pattern and tone; what he 
meant, probably, was that he sought, not external 
realities, but the spirit which underlies them. That, 
of course, has been the quest of every great painter. 

If Whistler was a law unto himself, so, in another 
sense, is Winslow Homer, who has worked out for 
himself an individual point of view and method of 
expression. Born in Boston in 1836, and early de- 
veloping a taste for drawing, he entered a lithog- 
rapher's shop at the age of nineteen and two years 
later set up for himself. During the Civil War he 
acted as correspondent and artist for Harper s 
Weel-ly, and, when peace came, began his paintings 
with a series of army scenes. After that he tried his 
hand at landscape, and finally found his real vocation 

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A Guide to Bioarnpliy 

as a painter of the sea. From the first, his pictures 
possessed obvious sincerity. ]\rorc than that, they 
convince hy their absolute veracity, as a reproduction 
of the thing seen — seen, be it understood, by the eyes 
of the artist — and so they have lived and been re- 
membered ^vhere more ambitious work would have 
been forgotten. Again, he chooses his subjects with 
a tine disregard of what other men have done or 
decided that it was impossible to do, and painted 
them in a manner w4iolly independent and original. 
No other artist has so conveyed on canvas the weight 
and buoyancy and enormous force of water; no one 
else approaches his as an interpreter of the power of 
the sea. 

Lineal successor of Inness is Dwight William 
Tryon, not that his work resembles the older man's, 
but because both paint the American landscape with 
a deep personal feeling and with a superb technique. 
Tryon has not yet developed into so commanding a 
figure as Inness, but there is no telling what the 
future holds for him, for his work seems as full of 
poetry and emotion as the older man's, with a spirit 
more delicate and a foundation more firm. 

The work of Francis D. Millet has attracted wide 
attention and is also full of promise and inspiration. 
]\[illet has the American versatility — he has been a 
war-correspondent, an illustrator, has written travels, 
criticism, and even fiction, has acted as an expert on 
old pictures, raised carnations, and even, in time of 
need, performed surgical operations on wounded 
soldiers — all of it, not as an amateur, but as a pro- 

116 



Painters 

fessional asking no odds of anyone. In addition to 
which, he has been a painter, and a painter whose 
work has shown no sign of haste or distraction. The 
qniet, human side of English life in the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries is what has most appealed 
to him, the country parlors and white-washed 
kitchens, peopled with travellers and buxom serv- 
ing-maids, and these groups are unusually attractive 
and well executed. 

Allied with Millet in taste and viewpoint, and with 
a much wider popularity, is Edwin A. Abbey. Be- 
ginning his career as an illustrator, he soon reached 
the front rank in that profession, especially with his 
illustrations of classic English poems, into whose 
spirit he has entered so completely that he might 
better be called their interpreter than their illus- 
trator. From pen-and-ink work, he progressed natur- 
ally to oil, and here, too, he has achieved some 
notable triumphs — so notable, indeed, that, though 
American, he was chosen by the English government 
to paint the official picture of the coronation of King 
Edward VII. It is a curious coincidence that the 
official picture of the coronation of Queen Victoria 
was also painted by an American, C R. Leslie. 

More important than Abbey, and perhaps the 
greatest American artist alive to-day is John Singer 
Sargent, whose nationality has occasioned no little 
controversy. Born in Florence of American parents, 
receiving his artistic training in Paris, residing since 
in England, though with much travelling through 
Europe and only two or three trips to the land of liis 

117 



A Guide to Biography 

allegiance, he may still be held an American, if de- 
scent counts for anything. His paintings have been 
shown wherever pictures are to be seen and he has 
received for them all honors that a painter can re- 
ceive. 

Before the freedom and certainty of Sargent's art 
criticism stands abashed. His portraits have a won- 
derful effect of vitality, and a purity and brilliancy 
of color which have never been surpassed; but most 
noteworthy of all, he achieves the supreme triumph 
of the portrait painter by comprehending and dis- 
playing character. He shows the very soul of his 
sitter, without malice but also without mercy. Only 
towards children does he show tenderness, and then 
he paints with a wonderful and varied charm. Not 
only of people but of places does he give the charac- 
ter — a room takes on personality; silks, velvets, 
furniture, bric-a-brac are all eloquent. On the 
whole, his qualities are such that he may rightly be 
considered the greatest portrait painter since Rey- 
nolds and Gainsborough. The portrait of Edwin 
Booth, at the beginning of the chapter dealing with 
the stage, is an excellent specimen of his work. 

Sargent's portraits have placed him among the 
masters of all time, but perhaps he is most widely 
known by his remarkable decorations in the Boston 
Public Library, which in the original and in photo- 
graphic reproductions, have given the keenest delight 
to thousands and thousands of persons. It is im- 
possible to give any detailed description here of these 
masterpieces of decorative art, so perfect technically 

118 



Painters 

that tliey miglit almost serve as a canon to decorative 
painters. 

American painting may be said to have reached 
its cuhnination in Sargent, yet there are two other 
painters, who, if they fall below him in sheer genius, 
possess a charm and originality all their own. One 
of these is George de Forest Brush, who, somewhat 
after the fashion of Holbein, looks for a beauty of 
spirit independent of form or feature. He paints 
mothers and children not as young goddesses rollick- 
ing with cherubs, but as grave and tender women, 
who have sacrificed without regret something of their 
health and youthful freshness to the children they 
hold in their arms. In such groups there is a note 
of penetrating peace, a delicate distinction, which 
give Brush a position by himself. 

The other is John W. Alexander, whose work is 
interesting as introducing a certain new element into 
art— a concentration of energy on the originality of 
the first general effect, including nothing that does 
not interest, and yet giving the effect of completeness. 
In Alexander's portraits there is nothing to distract 
the interest from the personality of the sitter, and he 
usually achieves a delineation of character direct and 
truthful. 

Here this short review of the great personalities 
of American art must end. There are many other 
painters alive to-day whose work is full of promise, 
and who may yet achieve great places in the world's 
Pantheon. Indeed, it would almost seem that a 
renascence of American art is at hand. The country 

119 



A Guide to Biography 

has emerged from the crudities of its first years, and 
from the mediocre conventionality of its middle 
period, without having lost the freshness and enthu- 
siasm conducive to high achievement. Its face is 
toward the sunrise. 

SUMMARY 

Copley, John Singleton. Born at Boston, July 3, 
1737; went to Europe, 1771, and spent the remainder 
of his life there, principally in London; associate of 
Royal Academy, 1771; full member, 1773; died at Lon- 
don, September 9, 1815. 

West, Benjamin. Born at Springfield, Chester 
County, Pennsylvania, October 10, 1738; studied in 
Italy, 17G0-63; settled in London, 1763; became court 
historical painter, 1772; president of the Eoyal Acad- 
emy for many years; died at London, March 11, 1820. 

Peale, Charles Willson. Born at Chestertown, 
Maryland, April 16, 1711; with Copley at Boston, 
1768-69; went to London, 1770; and studied under 
Benjamin West; returned to America, 1774; served 
in Revolution, 1776-77; opened " Peale's Museum," 
1802; died at Philadelphia, February 22, 1837. 

Stuart, Gilbert. Born at ISTarragansett, Rhode 
Island, December 3, 1755; went to London and became 
pupil of West, 1775; returned to United States, 1792; 
died at Boston, July 27, 1828. 

Trumbull, John. Born at Lebanon, Connecticut, 
June 6, 1756; served in Revolution, attaining rank of 
colonel ; studied under West in London, and returned 
to America, 1804; died at New York City, November 
10, 1843. 

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Painters 

Sully, Thomas. Born at Horncastle, Lincolnshire, 
England, June 8, 1783; brought to America at the age 
of nine; went to London, 1809, and studied under 
West; settled in Philadelphia in 1810, and spent the 
remainder of his life there, dying November 5, 1872. 

Allston, Washington. Born at Naccamaw, South 
Carolina, November 5, 1779; graduated at Harvard, 
1800; studied at Boyal Academy and at Bome, return- 
ing to America, 1809 ; died at Cambridge, Massachu- 
setts, July 9, 1843. 

Vandeelyn, John. Born at Kingston, New York, 
October 15, 1775; studied art abroad, 1796-1801; and 
spent subsequent years in Europe, returning to Amer- 
ica in 1815; died at Kingston, September 24, 1852. 

Peale, Bembrandt. Born in Bucks County, Penn- 
sylvania, February 22, 1778; went to London and 
studied under West, 1801-03; died at Philadelphia, 
October 3, 1860. 

Harding, Chester. Born at Conway, Massachu- 
setts, September 1, 1792; studied in London, 1823-26; 
died at Boston, April 1, 1866. 

Alexander, Francis. Born in Connecticut, 1800; 
went to Europe in 1831, finally taking up his residence 
in Florence, where he died. 

Neagle, John. Born at Boston, November 4, 1796; 
died at Philadelphia, September 17, 1865. 

Inman, Henry. Born at Utica, New York, October 
20, 1801 ; served seven years' apprenticeship with John 
Wesley Jarvis; died at New York City, January 17, 
1846. 

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A Guide to Biogi'aphy 

DuRAND, AsHER Brown. Bom at Jefferson, New 
Jersey, August 21, 1796; apprenticed to Peter Maver- 
ick, an engraver, 1813; president of National Academy 
of Design, 1845-61 ; died at South Orange, New Jersey, 
September 17, 1886. 

Cole, Thomas. Born at Bolton-le-Moors, Lan- 
cashire, England, February 1, 1801 ; came to America, 
1819; settled in New York, 1835; died at Catskill, 
New York, February 11, 1848. 

Church, Frederic Edwix. Born at Hartford, Con- 
necticut, May 4, 1826; pupil of Thomas Cole; National 
Academician, 1849; died at New York City, April 7, 
1900. 

BiERSTADT, Albert. Born at Diisseldorf, Germany, 
January 7, 1830; brought to America, 1831; early de- 
veloped a taste for art, and studied at Diisseldorf, 1853- 
57; returned to America and remained here, except 
for brief visits to Europe ; died at New York City, Feb- 
ruary 18, 1903. 

MoRAN, Thomas. Born at Bolton, England, Janu- 
ary 13, 1837; came to America, 1844; National Acad- 
emician, 1884; still living in New York City. 

Kensett, John Frederick. Born at Chester, Con- 
necticut, March 23, 1818; in Europe, 1840-44; Na- 
tional Academician, 1849 ; died at New York City, 
December 16, 1872. 

Inness, George. Born at Newburgh, New York, May 
1, 1835; National Academician, 1868; died at Bridge 
of Allan, Scotland, August 3, 1894. 

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Painters 

Wyant, Alexander H. Born at Port Washington, 
Ohio, January 11, 1836; studied in Germany and set- 
tled in New York, 1864; suffered paralytic stroke, 1877, 
and afterwards painted with left hand; died at New 
York City, Noveniher 29, 1893. 

Martin, Homer Dodge. Born at Albany, New 
York, October 28, 1836; opened New York studio, 
1862; National Academician, 1875; died at St. Paul, 
Minnesota, February 12, 1897. 

Vedder, Elihu. Born at New York City, Febru- 
ary 26, 1836; in Paris and Italy, 1856-61; and, after 
a year or two in America, returned to Italy, where he 
has since resided; National Academician, 1865. 

La Farge, John. Born at New York City, March 
31, 1835; studied under Couture and Hunt; National 
Academician, 1869 ; president Society of American 
Artists and Society of Mural Painters. 

Hunt, William Morris. Born at Brattleboro, Ver- 
mont, March 31, 1834 ; studied under Couture and 
Millet, 1846-55; opened Boston studio, 1856; died at 
Appledore, Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire, Septem- 
ber 8, 1879. 

Whistler, James Abbott McNeill. Born at Low- 
ell, Massachusetts, 1834; entered West Point Academy, 
1851, but soon left; settled in Paris, 1856, and studied 
art two years, and then settled in London, where the 
remainder of his life was passed; died there, July 17, 
1903. 

Homer, Winslow. Born at Boston, February 34, 
•1836; accompanied Army of Potomac in its campaigns, 
1861-63; National Academician, 1865. 

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A Guide to Biography 

Tryon, Dwight William. Born at Hartford, Con- 
necticut, August 13, 1849; National Academician, 
1891. 

Millet, Francis Davis. Born at Mattapoisett, 
Massachusetts, November 3, 1846; drummer 60th 
Massachusetts Volunteers, 1864 ; graduated at Harvard, 
1869; studied at Antwerp, 1871-72; correspondent 
Eusso-Turkish war, 1877-78 ; director of decorations 
World's Columbian Exposition, 1892-93. 

Abbey, Edwin Austin. Born at Philadelphia, April 
1, 1852; educated at Philadelphia Academy of Fine 
Arts; went to England, 1878, and has since made that 
his home. 

Sargent, John Singer. Born at Florence, Italy, 
1856; studied under Carolus Duran; has made England 
his home; Royal Academician, 1891; National Acad- 
emician, 1897. 



124 



CHAPTER V 
SCULPTORS 

TF background and tradition are needed for paint- 
-*■ ing, how much more are they needed for sculp- 
ture! America was settled by a people entirely 
without sculptural tradition, for, in the early seven- 
teenth century, British sculpture did not exist. 
More than that, to most of the settlers, art, in what- 
ever form, was an invention of the devil, to be 
avoided and discouraged. So it is not surprising that 
two centuries elapsed before the first American 
statue made its shy and awkward appearance. 

In considering the achievements of American 
sculpture, we must remember that it is still an infant. 
That it is a lusty infant none will deny, though some 
may find it lacking in that grace and charm which 
come only with maturity. 

The first man born in America who was foolhardy 
enough deliberately to choose sculpture as a profes- 
sion was Horatio Greenough, born in 1805, of well- 
to-do parents, and carefully educated. It is difficult 
to say just what it was that turned the boy to this 
difficult and exacting art — an unknown art, too, so 
far as America was concerned. But he seems to have 
begun woodcarving at an early age, and to have 

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A Guide to Biography 

progressed from that to chalk and on to plaster of 
Paris. The American national habit of whittling 
was perhaps responsible for the development of more 
than one sculptor. 

At any rate, by the time he was twelve years old, 
Horatio Greenough had produced some portrait busts 
in chalk, and, after having tried unsuccessfully to 
learn clay-modelling from directions in an old ency- 
clopedia, took some lessons from an artist who chanced 
to be in Boston, and from a maker of tombstones, 
got a little insight into the method of carving marble. 

These lessons, elementary as they must have been, 
were very valuable to the boy, and his work showed 
such promise that his father finally consented to his 
adopting this strange profession, insisting only that 
he first graduate from Harvard, on the ground that 
a college education would be of value, whatever his 
vocation. So he entered college at the age of six- 
teen, devoting all his spare time to reading works of 
art, to drawing and modelling, and the study of 
anatomy. He had also the good fortune to meet and 
win the friendship of Washington Allston, who ad- 
vised him as to plans of study. 

Immediately upon graduation, he sailed for Italy, 
which was, sadly enough, to be the Mecca of Ameri- 
can sculptors for many years to come. For Italian 
sculpture was bound hand and foot by the traditions 
of classicism, to which our early sculptors soon fell 
captive. Greenough was no exception, and some 
years of study in the Italian studios rivetted the 
chains. 

126 



Sculptors 

His first commission was given him by J. Feni- 
more Cooper. It was a group called the *' Chanting 
Cherubs," and when it was sent home for exhibition, 
it awakened a tempest of the first magnitude. Puri- 
tan ideas were outraged at sight of the little naked 
bodies, the group was declared indecent, and the 
bitter controversy was not stilled until it was with- 
drawn from view. Grcenough wrote of Cooper, " he 
saved me from despair; he employed me as I wished 
to be employed; and has, up to this moment, been a 
father to me in kindness " — a singularly interesting 
addition to the portrait of the great novelist, famous 
for his enmities rather than for his friendships. 

The tragedy of Greenough's life was the fate 
of his great statue of Washington, of which we have 
already spoken. He conceived the work on a high 
plane, " as a majestic, god-like figure, enthroned be- 
neath the dome of the Capitol at Washington, gilded 
by the filtered rays of the far-falling sunlight." Per- 
haps it was too high, but on its execution Greenough 
labored faithfully for eight years. " It is the birth 
of my thought," he wrote. " I have sacrificed to it 
the flower of my days, and the freshness of my 
strength; its every lineament has been moistened by 
the sweat of my toil and the tears of my exile. I 
would not barter away its association with my name 
for the proudest fortune that avarice ever dreamed." 

It will be seen from the above that Greenough's 
epistolary style was florid and grandiose in the ex- 
treme, but no doubt there was a foundation of 
sincerity beneath it. A bitter disappointment 

127 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

awaited him. The ponderous figure reached Wash- 
ington safely in 1843, and was conveyed to the Capi- 
tol, where, beneath the rotunda, its predestined 
pedestal awaited it. But the statue was found too 
large to pass the door, and when the door was 
widened and the great stone rolled inside, the floor 
settled so ominously that it was hastily withdrawn. 

It does not seem to have occurred to anyone that 
the floor might be braced; instead, the pedestal was 
set up outside, facing the building, and the statue 
hoisted into place. It speedily became the butt of 
public ridicule. Once the fashion started, no one 
looked at it without a smile. 

Greenough was in despair. " Had I been ordered 
to make a statue for any square or similar situation 
at the metropolis," he wrote, still in his inflated style, 
" I should have represented Washington on horse- 
back and in his actual dress. I would have made my 
subject purely a historical one. I have treated my 
subject poetically, and confess I would feel pain in 
seeing it placed in direct flagrant contrast with every- 
day life." 

But that is exactly how it was placed, and it is the 
incongruity of this contrast which strikes the be- 
holder and blinds him to the merits of the work. 
For Greenough has represented Washington seated 
in a massive armchair, naked except for a drapery 
over the legs and right shoulder, one hand pointing 
dramatically at the heavens, the other extended hold- 
ing a reversed sword. It shows sincerity and faithful 
work, and had it been placed within the rotunda, 

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Sculptors 

would no doubt have been impressive and majestic. 
Where it stands, it is a hopeless anachronism. 

This was the first colossal marble carved by an 
American. Fronting it on one of the buttresses of 
the main entrance of the Capitol, is the second, also 
by Greenough. It is a group called " The Rescue," 
and shows a pioneer saving his wife and child from 
being tomahawked by an Indian, while his dog 
watches the struggle with a strange apathy — almost 
with a smile. Like most of his other work, it is 
stilted and unconvincing; but let us remember that 
Greenough was the pathfinder, the trail-blazer, and 
as such to be honored and admired. 

Greenough's fame, such as it was, was soon to be 
eclipsed by that of a man born in the same year, but 
later in development because he had a harder road 
to travel. Hiram Powers was born into a large and 
poverty-stricken family. While he was still a boy, 
his father removed from the sterile hills of Vermont 
to the almost frontier town of Cincinnati, Ohio. He 
seems to have had little schooling, but was put to 
work as soon as he was old enough to contribute 
something toward the family exchequer. He did all 
sorts of odd jobs, and soon developed an unusual 
talent, that of modelling faces. 

Those were the halcyon days of the dime museum, 
and there was one at Cincinnati. Its proprietor 
chanced to hear of the boy's gift for modelling, and 
offered him employment as a modeller of wax figures. 
Of course Powers accepted, for this was work after 
his own heart, and he succeeded not only in produc- 

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A Guide to Biofp'aphy 

ing some figures which resembled definite human 
beings, but " breathed the breath of life into them " 
by means of clock-work devices, which enabled them 
to move their heads and arms in a manner sufficiently 
jerky, but at the same time astonishing to the simple 
people who visited the museum to behold its won- 
ders. 

Emboldened by this success, the young genius pro- 
duced an " Inferno," or " Chamber of Horrors," 
which, when completed, was an immense success — 
too immense, indeed, for it had to be closed because 
of the fearful impression it made upon the ladies, who 
fainted in their escorts' arms whenever they gazed 
upon its terrors. One is inclined to suspect that the 
ladies might have withstood the horrors of the sight, 
but for a desire to prove their extreme sensibility. 
Fainting was more fashionable eighty years ago than 
it is to-day. 

Powers soon developed from this work a talent for 
catching likenesses, and, searching for a wider field, 
proceeded finally to Washington, where he modelled 
busts in wax of Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, 
John C. Calhoun, John Marshall, and other celebri- 
ties of the period. From wax, he naturally wished 
to graduate into marble, and in 1837, left America 
for Italy, never to return. Grcenough, then laboring 
awa}^ at his Washington, assisted him in various 
ways; and Hawthorne met him in Italy and was 
much impressed by him, as his " Italian Note-Book " 
shows. 

In 1843, he completed the figure which was 
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Sculptors 

destined to make bim famous, the " Greek Slave." 
The statue was supposed to represent a maiden cap- 
tured by the Turks, " stripped and manacled and 
offered for sale in the market place," and so had a 
sentimental appeal which went straight to the heart 
of a sentimental people, and overcame any antagon- 
ism which her nudity might have produced. It in- 
spired Elizabeth Barrett Browning to a not very 
noteworthy sonnet, clergymen gave it certificates of 
character, so to speak, and " it made a sensation 
wherever shown, and was fondly believed to be the 
greatest work of sculpture known to history." Let 
us say at once that it is an engaging and creditable 
piece of work, and worthy, in the main, of the enthu- 
siasm which it excited. 

The " Greek Slave " was only the beginning. 
Powers turned out one statue after another with con- 
siderable rapidity, but his reputation rests mainly to- 
day on his portrait busts of men. It is characteristic 
of artists that the things they do best and easiest they 
value least, and this was so with Powers. His 
portrait busts were, in a sense, mere pot-boilers; he 
lavished himself upon his ideal figures. But these are 
now ranked as unimaginative and commonplace. 

Third among our early sculptors of importance 
was Thomas Crawford, born eight years later than 
Greenough and Powers, and preceding the latter to 
the grave by many years, yet leaving behind him a 
mass of work which, if it shows no great imagination, 
displays considerable poetic refinement. Driven to 
Italy because it was only there that marble work 

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A Guide to Biography 

could be well and economically done, he lived there 
for some years, earning a bare subsistence by the pro- 
duction of second-rate portrait busts and copies of 
antique statuary. Then he attracted the attention of 
Charles Sumner, and with his help, was enabled, in 
1839, to produce his first important work, the 
" Orpheus," now in the Boston Museum. Many 
others followed, but they were of that ideal and senti- 
mental type, very foreign to modern taste. 

Crawford was an indefatigable workman, and few 
American museums are without one or more examples 
of his product. In the public square at Richmond, 
Virginia, stands one of his most important monu- 
ments, crowned by an astonishing equestrian figure 
of Washington, which he himself executed. Two of 
the subordinate statues are also his — those of Patrick 
Henry and Thomas Jefferson — and represent the 
best work he ever did. 

Another of his productions is the great figure of 
Freedom which crowns the dome of the Capitol at 
Washington, not unworthily. By a fortunate chance, 
which the sculptor could hardly have foreseen, the 
bulky and roughly modelled figure gains airiness and 
majesty from its lofty position, where its sickly-sweet 
countenance and clumsy adornment are refined by 
distance. It has become, in a way, a nationtil ideal, 
a part of the Republic. 

The success of these three men and the immense 
reputation which they attained naturally attracted 
others to a profession whose rewards were so exalted. 
The first to achieve anything like an enduring repu- 

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Sculptors 

tation was Henry Kirke Brown, born in Massa- 
chusetts in 1814, He early displayed some talent for 
portrait painting, and went to Boston to study under 
Chester Harding. Chance led him to model the head 
of a friend, and the result was so interesting that he 
then and there renounced painting for sculpture. 

N'aturally, his eyes turned to Italy, but he had no 
money to take him there, so perforce remained at 
home, getting such instruction as he could. In 1837, 
at the age of twenty-three, he produced his first 
marble bust, and within the next four years, had 
carved at least forty more, besides four or five 
figures. From all this work, he managed to save 
the money needed for the trip to Italy, but after four 
years in the Italian studios, he sailed for home again. 
On July 4, 1856, the second equestrian statue 
to be set up in the United States was unveiled in 
Union Square, New York City, and gave Brown a 
reputation which still endures. 

It is a statue of Washington, and, in some amazing 
fashion. Brown succeeded in producing a work of art, 
which, in some respects, has never been surpassed in 
America, and which has served as a pattern and guide 
to other sculptors from that day to this. It is a 
sincere, honest and dignified embodiment of the First 
American. Brown did some notable work after that, 
but none of it possesses the high inspiration which 
produced the noble and commanding figure which 
dominates Union Square. 

We have said that it was the second equestrian 
statue produced in America. The first may still be 

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A Guide to Biography 

seen by all who, on entering or leaving the "White 
House, glance across the street at the public square 
beyond. One glance is certain to be followed by 
others, for that statue is not only the first, it is the 
most amazing ever set up in a public place in this 
country. It has divided with Greenough's " Washing- 
ton," at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, the 
horrors of being a national joke. Its author was 
Clarke Mills, and its inception is probably unparal- 
leled in the history of sculpture. 

Mills was born in I^ew York State in 1815, lost his 
father while still a child, and at the age of thirteen 
was driven by harsh treatment to run away from the 
uncle with whom he had made his home. Thence- 
forward he supported himself in any way he could — 
as farm-hand, teamster, canal-hand, post-cutter, and 
finally as cabinet maker. He drifted about the coun- 
try; to N^ew Orleans, and finally to Charleston, South 
Carolina, where he learned to do stucco work, and 
whiled away his leisure hours by modelling busts in 
clay. 

With Yankee ingenuity, he invented a process of 
taking a cast from the living face, and this simple 
method of getting a likeness enabled him to turn out 
busts so rapidly and cheaply that he had all the work 
he could do. He was, of course, anxious to try his 
hand at marble, and procuring a block of native Caro- 
lina stone, hewed out, with infinite labor, a bust of 
that South Carolina idol, John C. Calhoun. It was 
the best bust ever made of that celebrated statesman, 
and was the beginning of Mills's good fortune, and of 

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Sculptors 

the sequence of events which resulted in his statue 
of the hero of jSTew Orleans. 

For his Calhoun attracted much attention and se- 
cured him other commissions — among them, one for 
the busts of Webster and Crittenden. To get these, he 
was forced to go to Washington, and there he met the 
Hon. Cave Johnson, President of the Jackson Monu- 
ment Commission, which had got together the funds 
for an equestrian statue of that old hero. Johnson 
suggested to Mills that he submit a design for this 
statue. As Mills had never seen either General Jack- 
son or an equestrian statue, and had only the vaguest 
idea of what either was like, he naturally felt some 
doubt of his ability to execute such a work ; but John- 
son pointed out that this was only modesty, and so 
Mills finally evolved a design, which the commission 
accepted. 

Then he went to work on his model, and executed 
it on an entirely new principle, which was to secure 
a balanced figure by bringing the hind legs of the 
horse under the centre of its body. Congress donated 
for the bronze of the statue the British cannon which 
Jackson had captured at ISTew Orleans, and after 
many trials and disheartening failures, it was finally 
cast, hoisted into place, and dedicated on the eighth 
of January, 1853. 

The whole country gazed at it in wonder and ad- 
miration, for surely never had another work of art so 
unique and original been unveiled in any land. Mills 
had balanced his horse adroitly on his hind legs, and 
represented the rider as clinging calmly to this peril- 

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A Guide to Biography 

ous perch and doffing his chapeau to the admiring 
multitude. A delighted Congress added $20,000 to 
the price already paid, while ISTew Orleans ordered a 
replica at an even higher figure. Absurd as the 
statue is, it yet must command from us a certain 
respect for the enthusiast who designed it. Remem- 
ber, he had never seen an equestrian statue, because 
there was none in the country for him to see; he had 
no notion of dignified sculptural treatment; but he 
did what he could, as well as he was able. 

Mills was the last of the primitives, for following 
him came Erasmus D. Palmer and Thomas Ball, the 
two men who, more than any others, shaped the 
course and guided the development of American 
sculpture. 

Erasmus Palmer was born in 181Y, and followed 
the trade of a carpenter. But in the odd moments of 
1845, he made a cameo portrait of his wife, which 
was a rather unusual likeness. Encouraged by this 
success, he practised further, and ended by abandon- 
ing his saws and planes to devote his whole time to 
carAdng portraits. But the constant strain so weak- 
ened his eyes, that he was about to return to carpen- 
tering, when a friend suggested that he try his hand 
at modelling in clay. The result was the " Infant 
Ceres," modelled from one of his own children, 
which, reproduced in marble, created a sensation at 
the exhibitions in 1850. 

From that moment, Palmer's career was steadily 
upwards. It culminated eight years later in his de- 
lightful figure, the " White Captive," reminiscent in 

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Sculptors 

a way of the " Greek Slave/' but a better work of 
art, and one which stands among the most charming 
achievements of American sculpture. One of its 
wonders, too — wonder that an untrained hand and an 
unschooled brain should have been able to create a 
work of art at once so tender and so firm. Following 
it came some admirable portrait busts; and finally, in 
1862, his " Peace in Bondage." No doubt the sculp- 
tor's beautiful and adequate conception sprang from 
the tragic period which gave it birth ; for " Peace in 
Bondage " shows a winged female figure leaning 
wearily against a tree-trunk, and gazing hopelessly 
into space. It is carved in high relief, with great 
skill and insight. In fact, nothing finer had been 
produced in America. 

With this work, American art may be said to have 
found itself. It not only raised the standard of 
achievement, but it put an end at once and forever to 
the idea that study in Italy was necessary to artistic 
success. For only once did Palmer visit Europe, and 
then it was to stay but a short time. In fact, Italy 
was artistic poison for many men; its art lacked 
originality and vigor, and it sapped the native 
strength of many of the Americans who worked in its 
studios. 

Thomas Ball was an exception to this; for, in spite 
of many years abroad, he remained always character- 
istically American. He comes next to Palmer in 
strength and rightness of achievement ; his work, like 
his life, was earnest and noble. 

Thomas Ball's father was a house and sign painter 
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A Guide to Biography 

of Boston, with some artistic skill, which he passed 
on to his son. That was the boy's only inheritance, 
and when his father died, he undertook the support 
of the family, first as a boy-of-all-work in the New 
England Museum, and then as a cameo-cutter. From 
that he graduated naturally to engraving, miniature 
painting, and finally to portraiture. 

His first attempt at modelling resulted in a bust of 
Jenny Lind, done entirely from photographs, which 
had a wide vogue, for the Swedish Nightingale was 
then at the height of her popularity. Other more am- 
bitious work followed, and finally, at the age of 
thirty-five, he was able to realize his ambition to 
study in the studios of Florence. But he found the 
Italian environment less inspiring than he had hoped, 
and two years later he was back in Boston, working 
on an equestrian statue of Washington — the first 
equestrian group in New England and the fourth in 
the United States. He built his plaster model with 
his own hands, and was three years getting it ready. 
The result was a work which ranks among the first 
equestrian statues of the country. Other works of 
importance followed, among them the well-known 
emancipation group showing Lincoln blessing a 
kneeling slave, which was unveiled at Washington 
in 1875. 

The years touched Ball lightly, and at seventy 
years of age, he undertook his greatest work, an 
elaborate Washington monument for the town of 
Methuan, Massachusetts. The principal figure, a 
gigantic Washington in bronze, was exhibited at the 

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Sculptors 

Columbian Exposition of 1893, and received the 
highest honors of the exposition — a distinction it 
richly merited by its nobility of a conception and ex- 
ecution. Thomas Ball, indeed, set a new standard 
in public statuary, and one which no successor has 
dared to disregard. The far-reaching effects of his 
influence and that of Erasmus Palmer can hardly be 
over-estimated. 

One of the most engaging and versatile personali- 
ties in the whole range of American art was that of 
William Wetmore Story. Born at Salem, Massa- 
chusetts, in 1819, graduated at Harvard, admitted to 
the bar, the author of a volume of graceful verse and 
of a valuable life of his father, Chief Justice Story, 
he yet, in 1851, put all this work aside, adopted 
sculpture as a profession, and, proceeding to Rome, 
opened a studio there. 

It was from the first an extraordinary studio, at- 
tracting the most brilliant people of Rome in litera- 
ture as well as art; and if Story did not quite practise 
the perfection he was somewhat fond of preaching, 
it was because of his very versatility, which absorbed 
his talent in so many directions that it could not be 
concentrated in any. His imagination outran his 
achievement, and the most famous of his works, his 
statue of Cleopatra, owes its reputation not so much 
to its own merit, which is far from overwhelming, 
as to the ecstatic description of it which Nathaniel 
Hawthorne included in " The Marble Faun." A 
master of literature is not necessarily an inspired 
critic of art, and it is to be suspected that Hawthorne 

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A Guide to Biography 

permitted some of the fire of his imagination to play 
about the cold and uninspired marble. 

" Cleopatra " marked Story's culmination. He fell 
away from it year by year, producing a long line of 
figures whose only impressive features were the 
names he gave them — " The Libyan Sibyl," " Semi- 
ramis," " Salome," " Medea," and so on. However, 
he did much to increase the popularity of sculpture, 
for the stories he attempted to tell in stone by means 
of heavy-browed, frowning women in classic costume 
and with classic names, were exactly suited to the 
child-like intelligence of his public. He gave art, too 
— as William Penn gave the Quakers — a sort of 
social sanction because of his own social position. If 
the son of Chief Justice Story could turn sculptor, 
surely that profession was not so irregular, after all ! 

Another sculptor who shared with Story the ad- 
miration of the public was Randolph Rogers, born at 
Waterloo, N'ew York, in 1825. Until the age of 
twenty-three such modelling as he did was done in 
the spare moments of a business life; but when he 
gave an exhibition of the results of this labor, his 
employers were so impressed that they provided the 
money needed to send him to Italy, where he was to 
spend the remainder of his life, with the exception of 
five years' residence in New York. Two of his 
earlier figures are his most famous, his " Nydia " and 
his " Lost Pleiad." Scores of replicas in marble of 
these two figures were made during their author's 
life time, and they still retain for many people a 
simple and pathetic charm. Nearly every one, of 

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Sculptors 

course, has made the acquaintance of Nydia, the blind 
girl, in Bulwer-Ljtton's " The Last Days of Pom- 
peii," and so gaze at Rogers's fleeing figure with eyes 
too sympathetic to see its faults. 

Far more important is the work of William H. 
Rinehart, of the same age as Rogers, and resembling 
him somewhat in development. Born on a Maryland 
farm, his early years were those of the average 
farmer's boy, but at last some blind instinct led him 
to abandon farming for stonecutting, and he became 
assistant to a mason and stonecutter of the neighbor- 
hood. As soon as he had learned his trade, at the age 
of twenty-one, he went to Baltimore, where there 
was work in plenty, and where he could, at the same 
time, attend the night schools of the Maryland In- 
stitute. This sounds much easier than it really was. 
To devote the evenings to study, after ten and often 
twelve hours of the hardest of all manual labor, re- 
quired grit and moral courage such as few possess. 

He was soon trying his hand at modelling, and con- 
vinced, at last, that sculpture was his vocation, he 
managed, by the time he was thirty, to save enough 
money for a short period of study at Rome. Three 
years of work at Baltimore, after that, gave him some 
reputation, and he then returned to Rome, to spend 
the remainder of his life there. 

If you have ever visited the Metropolitan Museum 
of Art in ISTew York City, you have seen, in the hall 
of statuary, one of Rinehart's most characteristic 
groups, " Latona and Her Children." The mother 
half seated, half lying upon the ground, gazes tender- 

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A Guide to Biography 

ly down at the two sleeping children, sheltered in 
the folds of her mantle. The whole work possesses a 
serene poetic charm and dignity very noteworthy ; and 
this and other groups are among the most beautiful 
that any American ever turned out of an Italian 
studio. 

Rinehart was one of the last American disciples of 
the classic school. Certainly no art could have been 
more opposed to his than the frank and vivid realism 
of his immediate successor, John Rogers. Born in 
Salem, Massachusetts, the son of a family of mer- 
chants, he was educated in the common schools, 
worked for a time in a store, and then entered a 
machine shop as an apprentice, working up through 
all the grades, until finally he was in charge of a rail- 
road repair shop. 

During all these years he had no suspicion of 
artistic talent within himself, but one day in Boston 
he happened to see a man modelling some images in 
clay. In that instant, the artist instinct clutched him, 
and procuring some clay and modelling tools, he spent 
all his leisure in practice. This leisure was scant 
enough, for his trade kept him employed fourteen 
hours of every day ; but at the age of twenty-nine he 
was able to secure an eight months' vacation, which 
he spent in Europe, principally at Paris and Rome. 
He returned to America greatly discouraged, for the 
only thing he saw in Europe was classic sculpture, 
with which he had no sympathy and which, indeed, 
he could not understand. 

So, abandoning all thought of making sculpture a 
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Sculptors 

profession, he went to work as a draughtsman in 
Chicago, amusing himself, at odd hours, bj the con- 
struction of a group of small figures, which he called 
" The Checker Players." It was exhibited at a 
charity fair, and awakened so much interest and de- 
light that Rogers burned his bridges behind him by 
resigning his position, and proceeded to New York, 
and rented a studio, determined to be a sculptor in 
spite of classicism. 

The outbreak of the Civil "War furnished him a 
host of subjects which he treated with a patriotic 
fervor that went straight to the heart of an over- 
wrought people. " The Returned Volunteer," " The 
Picket-Guard," " The Sharp-shooters," " The Camp- 
fire," " One More Shot," and many others, came from 
his studio in rapid succession. They were all thor- 
oughly American, and some were even admirably 
sculptural. They, at least, stood for an original idea, 
and deserve better treatment than the silent contempt 
which, in these days, is about all that has been 
accorded them. 

At about this time, there came upon the scene the 
first and only really famous woman sculptor in the 
history of American art, Harriet Hosmer. She had 
had an unusual childhood, and had grown into an 
original and engaging woman. Born in 1830, at 
Watertown, Massachusetts, the daughter of a phy- 
sician, she inherited her mother's delicate constitu- 
tion, and her father encouraged her in an outdoor 
life of physical exercise such as only boys, at that 
time, were accustomed to. She became expert in 

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A Guide to BiopjrapHy 

fowing, riding, skating and shooting, developed great 
'andiirance, filled her room with snakes and insects 
and birds' nests, and in a clay pit at the end of her 
father's garden modelled rude figures of animals. 

A few years of schooling followed this wild girl- 
hood; then she was sent to Boston to study drawing 
and modelling; but finding that no woman would be 
admitted to the Boston Medical School, whose course 
in anatomy she was anxious to take, she went to St. 
Louis and entered the medical college there. Fin- 
ally, in 1852, accompanied by her father and Char- 
lotte Cushman, she set sail for Italy. 

She remained there for eight years, turning out a 
number of very creditable figures, which, if not great, 
at least possess some measure of grace and charm. 
Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his " Italian Note-Book," 
has left a vivid impression of Miss Hosmer, whose 
eccentricity of dress and manner impressed him 
deeply, as did also the work which she showed him. 
But she never reached any high development. 

Which brings us to the present of American art, 
for the sculptors we have yet to consider are either 
yet alive or have died so recently that they belong to 
the present rather than the past. 

The first and one of the most important of these 
is John Quincy Adams "Ward, born in 1830 on an 
Ohio farm. An accident showed the possession of 
latent talent, for some good pottery clay happened 
to be discovered on his father's farm, and his guard- 
ian angel inspired the boy to take a handful of it and 
model the grotesque countenance of a negro servant. 

144 



Sculptors 

The result was striking, and no doubt he felt within 
himself some of the stirrings of genius, but not until 
1849 did he realize his vocation. Then, while on a 
visit to a sister in Brooklyn, he happened to pass the 
open door of H. K. Brown's studio. The glimpse 
he caught of the scene within fascinated him; he re- 
turned again and again, and ended by entering the 
studio as a pupil. 

He could have found no better master, and for 
seven years he remained there, assisting Brown in 
every detail of his work. His first group, modelled 
after long study, was his "Indian Hunter," now 
placed in Central Park, New York — a group instinct 
with vitality — a glimpse of a forgotten past, evoked 
with the skill of a master. It was the first of a long 
line of statues, many of them portraits of contempo- 
raries, a field in which Ward has no superior. It is 
perhaps the highest tribute which could be paid the 
man to say that, with all his great production, he has 
never done bad work, never produced anything tri- 
fling or unworthy. 

A fellow student with Ward in Henry Kirke 
Brown's studio was Larkin G. Meade, the first in- 
dication of whose talent was a unique one. One 
winter morning, about the middle of the century, the 
good people of Brattleboro, Vermont, were aston- 
ished to find set up in one of the public squares of 
the town a colossal snow image, in the form of a 
majestic angel — crude, no doubt, in execution, but 
singularly effective. Inquiry developed that it was 
the work of young Meade, then only fifteen years of 

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A Guide to Biography 

age. The incident got into the newspapers, magnified 
considerably, and attracted the attention of old 
Nicholas Longworth, of Cincinnati, who, on more 
than one occasion, had himself appeared as angel to 
struggling artists. 

It was so in this case. Mr. Longworth wrote to 
Brattleboro, making some inquiries as to the essential 
truth of the story, and having satisfied himself on 
that point, offered to help the boy to get an artistic 
education. The offer was accepted, and young Meade 
was placed in Brown's studio, going afterwards to 
Italy. While there, he heard of the assassination of 
President Lincoln, and prepared an elaborate design 
in plaster for a national monument to the martyred 
President's memory. As soon as this was completed, 
he started for home with it, arriving at precisely the 
right moment. The rage for monument building 
was sweeping up and down the land. Councils, legis- 
latures, all sorts of public and private bodies, were 
making appropriations to commemorate some particu- 
lar hero of the Civil "War, which was just ended; 
Meade's design appealed to the popular imagination, 
and the commission was awarded him. 

The monument, which was destined to cost a 
quarter of a million dollars, was by far the most im- 
portant that had ever been erected in this country, 
and the inexperienced young sculptor sailed back to 
Italy to begin work. Not until 1874 was it suffi- 
ciently completed to dedicate, and the last group of 
statuary was not put in place until ten years later. 
All this time, the sculptor had spent quietly in his 

146 



Sculptors 

studio at Florence, quite apart from the world of 
progress or of new ideas in art, and long before his 
work was finished, public taste had outgrown it and 
found it uninspired and commonplace. 

Much more important to American art is the work 
of Olin Levi Warner, the son of an itinerant Method- 
ist preacher, whose wanderings prevented the boy 
getting any regular schooling. During his childhood, 
he had shown considerable talent for carving statu- 
ettes in chalk, and he finally decided to immortalize 
his father by carving a portrait bust of him. For a 
stone, he " set " a barrel of plaster in one solid mass 
and then, breaking off the staves, began hacking 
away at it with such poor implements as he could 
command. It was a well-nigh endless task, but " it's 
dogged that does it," and the boy worked doggedly 
away until the bust was completed. It was con- 
sidered such a success that young Warner, convinced 
of his vocation, set to work to earn enough money 
to go abroad. For six years he worked as a teleg- 
rapher, and it was not until 1869, when he was 
twenty-five years old, that he had saved the money 
needed. 

Three years later he returned to New York, and 
opened a studio, but met with a reception so dismal 
and indifferent that, after a four years' desperate 
struggle, he was forced to abandon the fight and 
return to his father's farm. Anxious for any employ- 
ment, he applied to Henry Plant, President of the 
Southern Express Company, for work. Mr. Plant 
was interested, and instead of offering him a job as 

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A Guide to Biography 

messenger or teamster, gave him a commission for 
two portrait busts. 

It was the turning point in Warner's career, for 
the busts he produced were of a craftsmanship so 
delicate and beautiful that they at once established 
his position among his fellow-sculptors, though years 
elapsed before he received any wide public recogni- 
tion. The truth is that he was too great and sincere 
an artist to cater to a public taste which he had him- 
self outgi'own; so that, until quite recently, he has 
remained a sculptor's sculptor. His untimely death, 
in 1896, from the effects of a fall while riding in 
Central Park, brought forth a notable tribute from 
his fellow-craftsmen, and students of sculpture have 
come to recognize in him one of the most delicate and 
truly inspired artists in our history. 

But the most powerful influence in the recent de- 
velopment of American sculpture has been that great 
artist, Augustus Saint Gaudens. Born in 1848, at 
Dublin, Ireland, of a French father and an Irish 
mother, he was brought to this country while still an 
infant. Perhaps this mixed ancestry explains to some 
degree Saint Gaudens's peculiar genius. At the age 
of thirteen, he was apprenticed to a cameo-cutter in 
New York City, and worked for six years at this 
employment, which demands the utmost keenness of 
vision, delicacy of touch, and refinement of manner. 
His evenings he spent in studying drawing, first at 
Cooper Union and then, outgrowing that, at the 
National Academy of Design, So it happened that, 
at the age of twenty, when most men were just begin- 

148 



Sculptors 

ning their special studies, Saint Gaudens was thor- 
oughly grounded in drawing and an expert in low 
relief. 

Another thing he had learned; and let us pause 
here to lay stress upon it, for it is the thing which 
must be learned before any great life-work can be 
done. He had learned the value of systematic in- 
dustry, of putting in so many hours every day at 
faithful work. The weak artist, whether in stone or 
paint or ink, always contends that he must wait for 
inspiration, and so excuses long periods of unpro- 
ductive idleness, during which he grows weaker and 
weaker for lack of exercise. The great artist compels 
inspiration by whipping himself to his work and set- 
ting grimly about it, knowing that the " inspiration," 
so-called, will come. For inspiration is only seeing a 
thing clearly, and the one way to see it clearly is to 
keep the eyes and mind fixed upon it. 

At the age of twenty, then, Saint Gaudens was not 
only a trained artist, but an industrious one. Three 
years in the inspiring atmosphere of Paris, and three 
years in Italy, followed; and finally, in 1874, he 
landed again at New York with such an equipment 
as few sculptors ever had. And seven years later he 
proved his mastery when his statue of Admiral Far- 
ragut was unveiled in Union Square, New York. 
That superb work of art made its author a national 
figure, and Saint Gaudens took definitely that place 
at the head of American sculpture which was his 
until his death. 

Six years later Saint Gaudens's " Lincoln " was 
149 



A Guide to Biography 

unveiled in Lincoln Park, Chicago, and was at once 
recognized as the greatest portrait statue in the 
United States. It has remained so — a masterpiece of 
exalted conception and dignified execution. Other 
statues followed, each memorable in its way; but 
Saint Gaudens proved himself not only the greatest 
but the most versatile of our sculptors by his work in 
other fields — by portraits in high and low relief, by 
ideal figures, and notably by the memorial to Robert 
Gould Shaw, a work distinctively American and with- 
out a counterpart in the annals of art. It is the 
spiritual quality of Saint Gaudens's work which sets 
it apart upon a lofty pinnacle — the largeness of the 
man behind it, the artist mind and the poet heart. 

Saint Gaudens's death in 1907 deprived American 
art of one of its most commanding figures, but there 
are other American sculptors alive to-day whose work 
is noteworthy in a high degree. One of these is 
Daniel Chester French. Born of a substantial New 
England family, and showing no especial artistic 
talent in youth, one day, in his nineteenth year, he 
surprised his family by showing them the grotesque 
figure of a frog in clothes which he had carved from 
a turnip. Modelling tools were secured for him, and 
he went to work. The schooling which prepared him 
for his remarkable career was of the slightest. lie 
studied for a month with J. Q. A. Ward, and for the 
rest, worked out his own salvation as best he coukl. 

His first important commission came to him at the 
age of twenty-three — the figure of the " Minute 
Man " for the battle monument at Concord, Massa- 

150 



Sculptors 

chnsetts. It was unveiled on April 19, 1875, and 
attracted wide attention. For here was a work of 
strength and originality produced by a young man 
without schooling or experience — produced, too, 
without a model, or, at least, from nothing but a 
large cast of the " Apollo Belvidere," which was the 
only model the sculptor had. But there was no hint 
of that famous figure under the clothes of the " Min- 
ute Man." It had been entirely concealed by the 
personality and vigor he had impressed upon his 
work. 

After that Mr. French spent a year in Florence, 
but he returned to America at the end of that period 
to remain. He has grown steadily in power and 
certainty of touch, rising perhaps to his greatest 
height in his famous group, " The Angel of Death 
and the Young Sculptor," intended as a memorial to 
Martin Milmore, but touching the universal heart by 
its deep appeal, conveyed with a sure and admirable 
artistry. Mr. French's great distinction is to have 
created good sculpture which has touched the public 
heart, and to have done this with no concession to 
public taste. 

Another sculptor who has gained a wide apprecia- 
tion is Frederick MacMonnies, who for sheer audac- 
ity and dexterity of manipulation is almost without 
a rival. He was born in BrookljTi in 1863, his father 
a Scotchman who had come to N^ew York at the age 
of eighteen, and his mother a niece of Benjamin 
West. The boy's talent revealed itself early, and was 
developed in the face of many difficulties. Obliged 

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A Guide to Biography 

to leave school while still a child and to earn his 
living as a clerk in a jewelry store, he still found 
time to study drawing, and at the age of sixteen had 
the good fortune to attract the attention of Saint 
Gaudens, who received him as an apprentice in his 
studio. 

No better fate could have befallen the lad, and the 
five years spent with Saint Gaudens gave him the 
best of all training in tlie fundamentals of his art. 
Some years in Paris followed, where he replenished 
his slender purse with such work as he could find to 
do, until, in 1889, his " Diana " emerged from his 
studio, radiant and superb. A year later came his 
statue of " Nathan Hale," and there was never any 
lack of commissions after that. " Nathan Hale " 
stands in City Hall Park, New York City, the very 
embodiment of that devoted young patriot. The 
artist has shown him at the supreme moment when, 
facing the scaffold, he uttered the memorable words 
which still thrill the American heart, and expression 
and sentiment were never more perfectly in accord. 
He struck the same high note with his famous foun- 
tain at Chicago Exposition, where hundreds of 
thousands of people suddenly discovered in this 
young man a national possession to be proud of. 

A year later his name was again in every mouth, 
when the Boston Public Library refused a place to 
perhaps his greatest work, the dancing " Bacchante," 
which has since found refuge in the Metropolitan 
Museum at New York — a composition so original 
and daring that it astonishes while it delights. 

152 



Sculptors 

Like MacMonnies, George Gray Barnard began 
life as a jeweller's apprentice, became an expert 
engraver and letterer, and finally, urged by a cease- 
less longing, deserted that lucrative profession for the 
extremely uncertain one of sculpture. A year and 
a half of study in Chicago brought him an order for 
a portrait bust of a little girl, and with the $350 he 
received for this, he set off for Paris. That meagre 
sum supported him for three years and a half — 
with what privation and self-denial may be imag- 
ined ; but he never complained. He lived, indeed, 
the life of a recluse, shutting himself up in his 
studio with his work, emerging only at night to 
walk the streets of Paris, lost in dreams of ambi- 
tion. That from this period of ordeal came some 
of the deep emotion which marks his work cannot be 
doubted. 

This quality, which sets Barnard apart, is well 
illustrated in his famous group, " The Two Natures," 
suggested by a line of Victor Hugo, " I feel two 
natures struggling within me." Two male figures 
are shown, heroic in size and powerfully modelled, a 
victor half erect bending over a prostrate foe. 

Besides these men, who are, in a way, the giants 
of the American sculptors of to-day, there are, 
especially in New York, many others whose work is 
graceful and distinctive. Paul Wayland Bartlett, 
Herbert Adams, Charles Niehaus, John J. Boyle, 
Frank Elwell, Frederick Ruckstuhl, to mention only 
a few of them, are all men of originality and power, 
whose work is a pleasure and an inspiration, and to 

153 



A Guide to Biography 

whose hands the future of American sculpture may 
safely be confided. 



SUMMARY 

Greenough, Horatio. Born at Boston, September 
6, 1805 ; graduated at Harvard, 1825 ; went to Italy, 
1825, and made his home there, with the exception of 
short visits to America and France ; died at Somerville, 
Massachusetts, December 18, 1852. 

Powers, Hiram. Born at Woodstock, Vermont, 
July 29, 1805 ; modelled wax figures at Cincinnati, 
Ohio, for seven years; went to Washington, 1835, and 
to Florence, 1837; died there, June 27, 1873. 

Crawford, Thomas. Born at New York City, March 
22, 1814 ; went to Italy, 1834, and took up residence at 
Eome for the remainder of his life; afflicted with sud- 
den blindness in 1856, and died at London, October 16, 
1857. 

Brown, Henry Kirke. Born at Ley den, Massachu- 
setts, February 24, 1814; studied in Italy, 1842-46; 
opened Brooklyn studio, 1850; died at Newburgh, New 
York, July 10, 1886. 

Mills, Clarke. Born in Onondaga County, New 
York, December 1, 1815; died at Washington, January 
12, 1883. 

Palmer, Erastus Dow. Born at Pompey, Onon- 
daga County, New York, April 2, 1817; opened studio 
in Albany, 1849; in Paris, 1873-74; died at Albany, 
New York, March 9, 1904. 

154 



Sculptors 

Ball, Thomas, Born at Charlestown, Massachu- 
setts, June 3, 1819; practised painting, 18-10-53; 
adopted sculpture, 1851 ; resided in Florence, Italy, 
1865-97; opened New York studio, 1898. 

Story, William Wetmore, Born at Salem, Massa- 
chusetts, February 19, 1819; graduated at Harvard, 
1838; admitted to the bar, 1810; published a volume 
of poems, 1847; went to Italy, 1848, and lived at Flor- 
ence until his death, October 5, 1895. 

EoGERS, Randolph. Born at Waterloo, New York, 
July 6, 1825; removed to Italy, 1855; died at Rome, 
January 15, 1892. 

RiNEHART, William Henry. Born in Maryland, 
September 13, 1825 ; removed to Rome, 1858, and died 
there, October 28, 1874. 

Rogers, John. Born at Salem, Massachusetts, Oc- 
tober 30, 1829; visited Europe, 1858-59; died, July 27, 
1004. 

Hosmer, Harriet G. Born at Watertown, Massa- 
chusetts, October 9, 1830; studied in Rome, 1852-60; 
opened Boston studio, 1861; died at Cambridge, Massa- 
chusetts, February 21, 1908. 

Ward, John Qui no y Adams. Born at Urbana, 
Ohio, June 29, 1830 ; studied under H. K. Brown, 1850 
-57; studio in New York City since 1861. 

Meade, Larkin Goldsmith. Born at Chesterfield, 
New Hampshire, January 3, 1835 ; studied under 
Brown and in Florence ; artist at the front for Harper's 
Weekly during Civil War; afterwards returned to Flor- 
ence and made his home tliere. 

155 



A Guide to Biography 

Warner, Olin Levi. Born at Suffield, Connecticut, 
April 9, 1844; studied in Paris, 1869-72; opened New 
York studio, 1873 ; died tliere, August 14, 1896. 

Saint Gaudens, Augustus. Born at Dublin, Ire- 
land, March 1, 1848; came to America in infancy; 
learned trade of cameo cutter; studied at Paris, 1867- 
70; Pome, 1870-73; opened New York studio, 1872; 
died at Corinth, N. H., August 3, 1907. 

French, Daniel Chester. Born at Exeter, New 
Hampshire, April 20, 1850; studied in Boston and 
Florence; studio in Washington, 1876-78; in Boston, 
1878-87; in New York since 1887. 

MacMonnies, Frederick. Born at Brooklyn, New 
York, September 20, 1863; studied under Saint Gau- 
dens, 1880-84; also at Paris, and has spent many of the 
succeeding years in France. 

Barnard, George Gray. Born at Bellefonte, Penn- 
sylvania, May 24, 1863; studied at Paris, 1884-87; 
spent some years in New York, and then returned to 
France. 



156 



CHAPTEK VI 
THE STAGE 

nr^HE golden age of American acting was not so 
-^ very long ago. Most white-haired men remem- 
ber it, and love to talk of the days of Booth and 
Forrest and Charlotte Cushman. Joseph Jefferson, 
the last survivor of the old regime, died just the other 
day, and to the very end showed the present genera- 
tion the charm and humor of Bob Acres and Rip Van 
Winkle. 

'No doubt that golden age is made to appear more 
golden than it really was by the mists of time; but 
undoubtedly the old actors possessed a mellowness, a 
solidity, a sort of high tradition now almost un- 
known. These qualities were due in part, perhaps, 
to the long and arduous stock company training, 
where, in the old days, every actor must serve his 
apprenticeship, and in part to the study of the classic 
drama which had so large a place in stock company 
repertoire. 

Success was infinitely harder to win than it is to- 
day. There were fewer theatres, so that the great 
actors were forced to play together, to their mutual 
advantage and improvement. The multiplication of 
theatres at the present time, and the vast increase of 

157 



A Guide to Biography 

the theatre-going public, has led to the " star " sys- 
tem — to the placing of an actor at the head of a 
company, as soon as he has won a certain reputation. 
And, since care is taken that the " star " shall out- 
shine all his associates, it follows that he has no one 
to measure himself with, he is no longer on his metal, 
and his growth usually stops then and there. 

But let us be frank about it. The attitude of the 
public toward the theatre has changed. To-day we 
would not tolerate the heavy melodramas which en- 
chained our parents and grandparents. The age of 
rant and fustian has passed away, and Edwin Forrest 
could never gain a second fortune from such a com- 
bination of these qualities as " Metamora." We are 
more sophisticated ; we refuse to be thrilled by In- 
gomar, no matter how loudly he bellows. What we 
ask for principally is to be amused, and consequently 
the great effort of the theatre is to amuse us, for 
the theatre must cater to its public. So, if the stage 
to-day is not what it was fifty years ago, the fault lies 
principally in front of the footlights and not behind 
them. 

To the student of American acting, one name 
stands out before all the rest, the name of Booth. 
No other actors in this country have ever equalled 
the achievements of Junius Brutus Booth and of his 
son, Edwin Booth. They possessed the genius of 
tragedy, if any men ever did, and no one who saw 
them in their great moments can forget the impres- 
sion of absolute reality which they conveyed. 

158 




BOOTH 



The Stage 

Junius Brutus Booth was the son of an eccentric 
silversmith of London, and was born there in 1796. 
Let us pause here to remark that, just as the greatest 
Frenchman who ever lived was an Italian, and the 
greatest Russian woman a German, so most of the 
early American actors were either English or Irish. 
This sounds rather Irish itself; but it is true. Cer- 
tainly, in the end Xapoleon Bonaparte became as 
French as any Frenchman and the Empress Cather- 
ine II Russian to the core; and the English and Irish 
actors who came to these shores in search of fame and 
fortune, and who found them and spent the re- 
mainder of their lives here, have every right to be 
considered in any account of the American stage 
which they did so much to adorn. 

Junius Brutus Booth, then, was born in London in 
1796. Twenty years before, his father had been so 
carried away by Republican principles that he had 
sailed for America to join the ranks of the army of 
independence, but he was captured and sent back to 
England. So it will be seen that he was something 
more than a mere silversmith; but he was very suc- 
cessful at his trade, and was able to give his son a 
careful classical education, to fit him for the bar. 
Imagine his chagrin when the boy, after a short 
experience in amateur theatricals, announced his in- 
tention of becoming an actor. 

He secured some small parts, made a tour of the 
provinces, and finally, in London, engaged in a re- 
markable war with the great tragedian, Edmund 
Kean, which divided the town into two factions. But 

159 



A Guide to Biography 

Booth tired of the struggle, in which the odds were 
all against him, and in 1831 sailed for America. He 
won an instant success, and was a great popular favor- 
ite until the day of his death. He was a short, spare, 
muscular man, with a pale countenance, set off by 
dark hair and lighted by a pair of piercing blue eyes, 
and he possessed a voice of wonderful compass and 
thrilling power. Upon the stage he was formidable 
and tremendous, giving an impression of overwhelm- 
ing power, in which his son, perhaps, never quite 
equalled him. 

Shortly after his arrival in America, Booth bought 
a farm near Baltimore, and there, on November 13, 
1833, Edwin Booth was born. There was a great 
shower of meteors that night, which, if they por- 
tended nothing else, may be taken as symbolical of 
the career of America's greatest tragedian. He was 
the seventh of ten children, all of whom inherited, in 
some degree, their father's genius. It was not with- 
out a trace of madness, and reached a fearful cul- 
mination in John Wilkes Booth, when he shot down 
Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington. 

From the first, Edwin Booth felt himself destined 
for the stage. His father did not encourage him, but 
finally, in 1849, consented to his appearance with 
him in the unimportant part of Tressel, in " King 
Richard the Third." From that time on, he accom- 
panied his father in all his wanderings, and partook 
of the strange and sad adventures of that wayward 
man of genius. In 1852, he went with his father to 
California, and was left there by the elder Booth, 

160 



The Stage 

who no doubt thought it the best school for the boy's 
budding talent. There, in the Sandwich Islands, and 
in Australia, among the rough crowds of the mining 
camps, he had four years of the most severe training 
that hardship, discipline, and stern reality can fur- 
nish. Amid it all his genius grew and deepened, and 
when he returned again to the east in 1856 he was 
no longer a novice, but an accomplished actor. 

His last years in California had been shadowed by 
a great sorrow — the sudden and pitiful death of his 
father. The elder Booth had for years been subject 
to attacks of insanity, brought on, or at least intensi- 
fied, by extreme intemperance. On one occasion he 
had attempted to commit suicide. On another, he 
had had his nose broken, an accident which so inter- 
fered with his voice that he did not regain complete 
control of it for nearly two years. On his return 
from California, where he had left his son, he stopped 
at New Orleans, and remained there a week, per- 
forming to crowded houses. He then started north 
by way of the Mississippi, and was found dying in his 
stateroom a few days later. He had been caught in 
a severe rain as he left New Orleans, a cold de- 
veloped, complications followed, and for forty-eight 
hours he lay unattended in his stateroom, without 
that medical attention which he was unable or un- 
willing to summon. He died November 30, 1852, 
and his body was interred at Greenmount Cemetery, 
Baltimore, in a grave afterwards marked by a monu- 
ment erected by his son Edwin. 

This was only one of many tragedies which 
161 



A Guide to Biography 

darkened the life of Edwin Booth, for, to use the 
words of William Winter, he was " tried by some of 
the most terrible afflictions that ever tested the forti- 
tude of a human soul. Over his youth, plainly 
visible, impended the lowering cloud of insanity. 
AVhile he was yet a boy, and while literally struggling 
for life in the semi-barbarous wilds of old California, 
he lost his beloved father, under circumstances of 
singular misery. In early manhood he laid in her 
grave the woman of his first love, the wife who had 
died in absence from him, herself scarcely past the 
threshold of youth, lovely as an angel and to all who 
knew her precious beyond expression. A little later 
his heart was well nigh broken and his life was 
well nigh blasted by the crime of a lunatic brother 
that for a moment seemed to darken the hope of the 
world. Recovering from that blow, he threw all his 
resources and powers into the establishment of the 
grandest theatre in the metropolis of America, and 
he saw his fortune of more than a million dollars, to- 
gether with the toil of some of the best years of his 
life frittered away. Under all trials he bore bravely 
up, and kept the even, steadfast tenor of his course; 
strong, patient, gentle, neither elated by public hom- 
age nor embittered by private grief." 

It has been said that Booth returned from Cali- 
fornia a finished actor. He had, besides, the prestige 
of a great name, and he was welcomed with open 
arms. He had not yet reached the summit of his 
skill, but he showed an extraordinary grace and " a 
spirit ardent with the fire of genius." From tbat 

162 



The Stage 



to^ 



time forward, his career was one of lofty endeavor 
and of high achievement. In the great characters of 
Shakespeare, especially in those of Hamlet, Richard 
the Third, and lago, he had no rivals, and no one 
who witnessed him in any of these parts ever ontlived 
the deep impression the performance made. During 
the last two or three years of his life his health failed 
gradually, and he was finally compelled to leave the 
stage. On April 19, 1893, he suffered a stroke of 
paralysis from which he never rallied, lingering in a 
semi-conscious state until June 7th, when he sank 
rapidly and died. 

Of his art no words can give an adequate idea. It 
was essentially poetic, full of a strange and compel- 
ling charm. His great moments laid upon his audi- 
ence the spell of his genius, and rank with the high- 
est achievements of any actor who ever lived. His 
countenance — 

"That face which no man ever saw 

And from his memory banished quite, 
The eyes in which are Hamlet's awe 

And Cardinal Richelieu's subtle light" — 

as Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote of Sargent's por- 
trait, which heads this chapter — was a strange and 
moving one, and in range of expression unsurpassed. 
His eyes were especially wonderful, dark brown, but 
seeming to turn black in moments of passion, and 
conveying, with electrical effect, the actor's thought. 
He was unique. He stood apart. The American 
stage has never produced another like him. 

163 



A Guide to Biography 

Second only to Edwin Booth in sheer glory of 
achievement stands Edwin Forrest. He fell far be- 
low Booth in grace, in charm, and in poetic insight, 
hut he surpassed him in physical equipment for the 
great parts of tragedy, particularly in his voice, mag- 
nificent, vibrating, with an extraordinary depth and 
purity of tone. 

Unlike Booth, Forrest came from no family of 
actors, nor inherited a name famous in the annals of 
the stage. He was born in Philadelphia in 1806, his 
father being a Scotchman, employed in Stephen 
Girard's bank, and making just enough money to 
keep his family of six children from actual want. 
He died when Edwin was thirteen years old, and his 
widow, by opening a little store, managed to support 
the children. She was a serious and devout woman 
and decided that Edwin should enter the ministry. 
But meantime, he must earn a living, so he was ap- 
prenticed to a cooper. 

How long he stayed with the cooper nobody knows; 
but it could not have been long, for already he was 
fired with an ambition to be an actor, and after some 
experience as an amateur, astonished and grieved his 
mother by announcing that he was going on the stage. 
He made his first appearance on the 27th of Novem- 
ber, 1820, as Young N'orval, in Home's tragedy 
of " Douglas," and was an immediate success. His 
youth — remember, he was but fourteen — his hand- 
some face and manly bearing, and, above all, that 
wonderful and resonant voice, won the audience at 
once, and his career was begun. 

164 



The Stage 

But many hardships awaited him. The theatres 
of New York and Philadelphia had their companies 
of well-knovv'n and well-trained actors. There was 
no hope for him in either of those cities ; but at last 
he secured an engagement to play juvenile parts at 
Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Lexington, and other towns 
of the middle west, at a salary of eight dollars a week. 
This, of course, was scarcely enough to keep body 
and soul together, but all Forrest wanted was a 
chance, and he did not murmur at the suffering and 
hardship which followed. 

For business was poor, and Forrest did not always 
receive even that eight dollars. The end came at 
Dayton, Ohio, where the company went to pieces. 
Forrest, without money and almost without clothes, 
walked the forty miles to Cincinnati, where, after a 
time, he found another position. Such was the be- 
ginning of his career, and this hard novitiate lasted 
for four years, until, in 1826, at the age of twenty, 
he was able to return to New York and secure an 
engagement at the old Bowery Theatre, He was an 
instant success, and from year to year his wonderful 
powers seemed to increase, until he became easily the 
most famous actor of the day. 

But his fame was soon to be dulled by unfortunate 
personalities. Conceiving a jealousy of Macready, 
the famous English actor, he hissed him at a per- 
formance in Edinburgh, and when Macready came 
to America in 1849, Forrest's followers broke in 
upon a performance at the Astor Place opera house, 
and a riot followed in which twenty-two men were 

165 



A Guide to Biography 

killed. A quarrel with his wife led to the divorce 
court, and the suit was decided against him. 

The end was pathetic. He had been troubled with 
gout for a long time, and in 1865, it took a malig- 
nant turn, paralyzing the sciatic nerve, so that he lost 
the use of one hand, and could not walk steadily. 
His power had left him, and in the five years that 
followed, he played to empty houses and an indiffer- 
ent public, not content to retire, but hoping against 
hope that he might in some way regain his lost pres- 
tige. A stroke of paralysis finally ended the hopeless 
struggle. 

Forrest's art was of a cruder and more robust sort 
than Edwin Booth's who, by the way, was named 
after him. He was greatest in characters demanding 
a great physique, a commanding presence and — yes, 
let us say it! — a loud voice. Coriolanus, Spartacus, 
Virginius — those were his roles, and no man ever 
looked more imposing in a Roman toga. 

Forrest, during his English engagement of 1845, 
and on other occasions, shared the honors with a re- 
markable actress, Charlotte Cushman. And perhaps 
none ever had a more astonishing career. Born in 
Boston in 1816, her youth was one of poverty, for her 
father died while she was very young, leaving no 
property. The girl was remarkably bright, and soon 
developed a contralto voice of unusual richness and 
compass. She sang in a choir and assisted to support 
the family from the age of twelve, securing such 
musical instruction as she could. In 1834, she made 
her first appearance in opera and scored a tremen- 

166 



The Stage 

dons success. A splendid career seemed opening be- 
fore her, when suddenly, a few months later, her 
voice, strained by the soprano parts which had been 
assigned her, failed completely. 

Her friends advised her to become an actress, and 
she went diligently to work, not allowing herself to 
despond over that first great disappointment. For 
the next seven years, she worked faithfully learning 
the new profession from the very bottom. " I became 
aware," she said, " that one conld never sail a ship 
by entering at the cabin windows ; he must serve and 
learn his trade before the mast." In that way she 
learned hers, playing minor parts, doing cheerfully 
the drudgery of her profession, refusing all offers for 
more important work until she felt herself thoroughly 
capable of undertaking it. One would wish that her 
example might be taken to heart by her sisters of the 
present day. 

At last her chance came. In 1842, William C 
Macready, the great English tragedian, visited the 
United States, and in Charlotte Cushman he found a 
splendid support. Indeed, she divided the honors 
with him. A year later, she went to London and won 
immense applause. '' Since the first appearance of 
Edmund Keane, in 1814," said a London journal, in 
speaking of her first night as " Bianca," " never has 
there been such a debut on the stage of an English 
theatre." For eighty-four nights she appeared with 
Edwin Forrest. " All my successes put together," 
she wrote to her mother, " would not come near my 
success in London." 

167 



A Guide to Biography 

In the winter of 1845 she tried one of the most 
daring experiments ever made by an actress, appear- 
ing as Romeo to her sister, Susan Cushman's, Juliet. 
It was a notable success. Her deep contralto voice 
made it possible for her to give a complete illusion 
of the young and handsome lover. She played other 
male characters in after years, notably Hamlet, and 
created a deep impression in them. Her sister was 
a lovely girl, and an accomplished actress, and their 
" Romeo and Juliet " ran for two hundred nights. 
Susan Cushman would no doubt also have won high 
fame as an actress, but she soon retired from the 
stage, marrying the distinguished chemist and author, 
James Sheridan Muspratt, of Liverpool. 

Charlotte Cushman returned to America in the fall 
of 1849, and was received with acclamation. There 
was never any question, after that, of her position 
as the greatest English-speaking actress, and that po- 
sition she easily maintained until her death. She 
gathered wealth as well as fame, built a villa at 
ISTewport, and in 1863 earned nearly nine thousand 
dollars for the United States Sanitary Commission 
by benefit performances. Energetic, resolute, faith- 
ful, impatient of any achievement but the highest, 
she seemed the very embodiment of many of Shake- 
speare's greatest creations. She possessed a strange 
and weird genius, akin, in some respects, to that of 
Edwin Booth, and her delineation of the sublime, the 
beautiful, the terrible has never been surpassed. A 
noble interpreter of noble minds, Charlotte Cushman 
stands for the supreme achievement of the actress. 

168 



The Stage 

What Booth and Forrest were to tragedy, William 
J. Florence was to comedy. Indeed, he may be said 
to have gone farther than either Booth or Forrest, 
for he founded a school and gave to the stage the 
chivalrous, light-hearted and lucky Irishman, who has 
since become so familiar to the drama, however rare 
he may be outside the theatre. 

Florence was born in Albany, New York, in 1831. 
His family name was Conlin, from which it will be 
seen that he came naturally by his insight into Irish 
character; but he changed this name when he went 
upon the stage to the more romantic and euphonious 
one of Florence. He gave evidence of possessing 
unusual dramatic talent while still a boy, and made 
his debut on the regular stage at the age of eighteen. 
He had the usual hardships of the young actor, play- 
ing in various stock companies without attracting 
especial attention, and finally, in 1853, marrying 
Malvina Pray, herself an actress of considerable abil- 
ity. 

It was at this time that Florence began to find his 
field in the delineation of Irish and Yankee charac- 
ters, his wife appearing with him, and together they 
won a wide popularity. Florence wrote some plays 
and a number of sprightly songs, which his wife sang 
inimitably. He himself improved steadily in his act- 
ing, and, especially in the gentle humor and melting 
pathos with which he clothed his characters, stood 
quite alone. A tour through England added to his 
fame, and his songs were soon being sung and 
whistled in the streets pretty generally wherever the 

169 



A Guide to Biography 

English tongue was spoken. One song in par- 
ticular, called " Bobbing Around," had immense 
popularity. 

But Florence was more than a mere song-writer 
Irish comedian. In his later years he proved himself 
to be an actor of high attainments and no one who 
ever witnessed a performance of " The Rivals," with 
Jefferson as Bob Acres, and Florence as Sir Lucius 
O'Trigger, will ever forget his finished and glowing 
impersonation. 

When Edwin Forrest, heart-broken and dis- 
credited, died in 1872, he left his manuscript plays 
to another great tragedian, whom he regarded as his 
legitimate successor, John McCullough. In some 
respects McCullough was a greater actor than For- 
rest, for he possessed that quality of poetic insight 
and high imagination which Forrest lacked, while in 
physical equipment for the great characters of 
tragedy he was in no whit his inferior. 

John McCullough was born in Coleraine, Ireland, 
in 1837, his parents, who were small farmers, bring- 
ing him to this country at the age of sixteen. They 
settled at Philadelphia and the boy was apprenticed 
to a chair-maker, but he soon broke away from that 
hum-drum employment, and in 1855, appeared in a 
minor part in " The Belle's Strategem." His story, 
after that, was the usual one of long years of training 
in various stock companies. He gradually worked his 
way into prominence, and finally in 1866, became 
associated with Edwin Forrest, taking the second 
parts in the latter's plays ; and, after Forrest's death, 

170 



The Stage 

taking his place as the first impersonator of robust 
tragedy in America. 

For ten years his success was tremendous — then 
came the sad ending. McCullough had always been 
supremely great in characters requiring the delinea- 
tion of madness — Yirginius, King Lear, Othello. 
Whether this had anything to do with the final 
tragedy cannot be said, but in 1884, while playing at 
Chicago, he broke down in the midst of a perform- 
ance, and had to be led from the stage. His mind 
was gone; he never rallied, and ended his days in an 
asylum for the insane. 

One of the most successful engagements McCul- 
lough ever had was in 1869 and for some years there- 
after, when, with Lawrence Barrett, he appeared at 
the Bush Street theatre in San Francisco. Barrett's 
name is also closely associated with that of Edwin 
Booth, for he played opposite Booth through many 
seasons — Othello to Booth's lago, Cassius to Booth's 
Brutus, and so on ; and the two formed a combination 
which for sheer genius has never been surpassed. 
But Barrett never commanded the adoration of the 
public as Booth did, because he lacked that power of 
enchantment which Booth possessed in a supreme 
degree. His mind was austere, he could win respect 
but not affection, and, as a result, criticism was more 
captious, honors came grudgingly or not at all, and 
the fight for recognition was up-hill all the way. 

Lawrence Barrett was born in 1838, and he began 
his theatrical career at the age of fifteen. After the 
usual hard stock-company experience, he secured a 

171 



A Guide to Biography 

New York engagement, where, for nearly two years, 
he supported such actors as Charlotte Cushman and 
Edwin Booth. From New York he went to Boston 
for a similar engagement, but at the outbreak of the 
Civil War he left the stage, accepted a captaincy 
in the Twenty-eighth Massachusetts Infantry, and 
served through the war with distinction. Then he 
returned to the theatre, gaining an ever-increasing 
reputation until his death. 

Clara Morris called him " The Man with the 
Hungry Eyes," and they were hungry, for life was 
always a battle to him. From an obscure and humble 
position, without fortune, friends, or favoring cir- 
cumstances he had fought his way upward in the face 
of indifference, disparagement and cold dislike. 

Clara Morris has told the story of her own life 
better than anyone else could tell it, and has shown 
in doing it the very qualities which made most for 
her success — a wide sympathy, an impetuous heart, 
and an invincible optimism. She, too, had a hard 
struggle at the first — entering the ballet at the age 
of fifteen to help her mother after her father's death, 
and working her way up until she secured a New 
York engagement with Augustin Daly's famous stock 
company, where she soon was sharing the honors 
with Ada Rehan. Ill health shortened her acting 
career, and compelled her retirement from the stage 
when at the very height of her powers. 

Just the other day there died in California another 
woman who won a great public a generation ago by 
a genius and charm seldom equalled. Helena Mod- 

172 



The Stage 

jeska's story was an unusual one. Born in Cracow, 
Poland, in 1844, the daughter of a great musician, 
her early years were passed in an inspiring atmos- 
phere, and almost from the first she felt an impulse 
toward the stage. But her family refused to permit 
her to become an actress, and it was not until after 
her marriage that her chance came. Her husband 
consented to a few trial appearances, and her success 
was so great that she was soon engaged as leading 
lady for the theatre at Cracow. 

But her husband incurred the ill-will of the 
authorities by his political writings, and she herself 
got into trouble with them by resisting the Russian 
censorship of the Polish theatre. It was evident that 
arrest and banishment for either or both of them 
might come at any moment, and under this incessant 
and increasing worry, her health began to fail. So 
she renounced the theatre, as she thought, forever, 
came to America, purchased a ranch in California, 
and settled down to spend the remainder of her life 
in quiet. But Edwin Booth, John McCullough, and 
others, encouraged her to study English and appear 
upon the American stage. She did so, and four 
months later appeared at San Francisco as Adrienne 
Lecouvreur. She had an instant success, and for 
more than thirty years maintained her position as 
one of the greatest actresses of the day. 

Her personal fascination was of an exceedingly rare 
kind, her figure tall and graceful, her face wonder- 
fully attractive in its intellectual charm and eloquent 
mobility. Shakespeare was her chief delight, and as 

173 



A Guide to Biography 

Juliet, Rosalind and Ophelia she enchanted thou- 
sands. 

On the evening of Thursday, ISTovember 25, 1875, 
an audience assembled at one of the theatres of Louis- 
ville, Kentucky, to witness " the first appearance 
upon any stage " of " a young lady of Louisville." 
The young lady in question had chosen as her vehicle 
Shakespeare's Juliet, which was certainly beginning 
at the top; she was only sixteen years of age and had 
never received any practical stage training; her ex- 
perience of life was narrow and provincial — and yet, 
when the curtain rang down for the last time, the 
discerning ones in that audience knew that, despite 
the crudity of the performance, a new star had arisen 
and a great career begun. For that " young lady 
of Louisville " was Mary Anderson. Her story is 
unique in the history of the American stage. 

Born in California in 1859, but taken to Louisville 
a 3'ear later ; her father, Charles Joseph Anderson, 
dying in 1863, an officer in the Confederate army, 
Mary Anderson was reared by her mother in the 
Roman Catholic faith and received her education in 
a parochial school at Louisville. She left school 
before she was fourteen, and two years later, as we 
have seen, was upon the stage. Her first appearance 
won her an engagement at Louisville, and for thirteen 
years thereafter she was an actress, never in a stock 
company, but always a star. Then, at the very 
meridian of her career, she married and retired for- 
ever from the stage. 

174 



The Stage 

Mary Anderson's charm was not that of a great 
actress, for a great actress she never became. She 
had not the training necessary to finished and round- 
ed work. Her charm was rather that of a sweet and 
gracious personality, of a beautiful nature and a 
high sincerity. Sumptuously beautiful, and possessed 
of a clear and resonant voice, such statuesque char- 
acters as Galatea and Hermione attracted her 
irresistibly, and in these she achieved her greatest 
triumphs. 

Scarcely second to her was Ada Rehan, born a year 
later, appearing on the stage two years earlier, in 
other words, at the age of thirteen. Ada Rehan, 
appropriately enough, was born at Limerick, Ireland, 
and the roguish and perverse Irish spirit was ever 
uppermost in her acting. She was brought to 
America when she was five years old, and lived and 
went to school in Brooklyn. Two of her elder sisters 
were upon the stage, but she does not seem to have 
indicated any especial desire to imitate them, and 
her first appearance was by accident. An actress 
playing a small part in " Across the Continent " was 
taken suddenly ill, and the child, who happened to 
be at the theatre, was hastily dressed for it and 
taught her few lines; but she displayed so much 
readiness and natural t>alent that, at a family council 
which followed the performance, it was decided that 
she should proceed with a stage career, and she was 
soon regularly embarked. 

This meant a long and severe course of training 
in the stock companies maintained at the various 

1V5 



A Guide to Biography 

theatres throughout the country to support such 
wandering stars as Booth and McCullough, and Bar- 
rett, and Adelaide Neilson, and she emerged from 
this training well grounded in all the business of the 
actress. In 1879, she attracted Augustin Daly's 
attention, and from that time forward until Daly's 
death, she was the leading woman at his famous New 
York house, becoming one of the most admired 
figures upon the stage. Her art, luminous and spar- 
kling, especially fitted her for high comedy, and it 
was there that she achieved her greatest distinction. 

Ada Rehan's name was closely associated for many 
years with that of John Drew, also a member of the 
Daly company, and a son of the famous " Mr. and 
Mrs. John Drew," two of the most versatile, charm- 
ing and popular members of the old school. The 
elder John Drew was born in Ireland in 1825, but 
came to America at the age of twenty and spent the 
remainder of his life here, except for a few absences 
on tour. He was considered the best Irish comedian 
on the American stage. His wife, born in London in 
1820 of a theatrical family, appeared in child's parts 
at the age of eight, came to this country at the age 
of twenty, and made a great success here in high 
comedy parts. Their son can scarcely be said to have 
fulfilled the promise of his early years, but seems to 
be content with an achievement which shows him 
to be an accomplished and finished, but by no means 
inspired or imaginative, actor. 

Another family as celebrated in American theatri- 
cal annals as that of John Drew was E. L. Daven- 

176 



The Stage 

port's. Davenport himself had received his training 
in the old stock companies, and notably as Junius 
Brutus Booth's support in a number of plays. He 
was equally at home in tragedy and comedy. As- 
sociated with him after their marriage in 1849 was 
his wife, Fanny Elizabeth Vining, an actress of con- 
siderable ability. 

No less than six of their children followed the 
stage as a career. The most famous of them was 
Fanny Davenport, whose stage career began when 
she was a mere baby. Her young girlhood was 
occupied with soubrette parts, but she soon developed 
unusual emotional jiowers, and attracted Augustin 
Daly's notice. He added her to his stock company 
in 1869, and she soon won a notable success in such 
parts as Lady Gay Spanker, Lady Teazle and Rosa- 
lind. 

Perhaps no American actor ever had a more re- 
markable career than William Warren. Born in 
1812, the son of a player of considerable reputation, 
his first appearance was at the age of twenty. For 
twelve years his history was that of most other strug- 
gling actors, but in 1846 he became connected with 
the Howard AthenaBum at Boston, where he re- 
mained for thirty-five years, retiring permanently 
from the stage in 1882. 

During his career, he had given 13,345 perform- 
ances and had appeared in 577 characters, a record 
w^hich has probably never been approached. He was 
especially notable in his representations of the " fine 
old English gentleman," and he became to Boston a 

177 



A Guide to Biography 

sort of Conservatory of Acting in himself. That he 
was appreciated both as man and artist his long resi- 
dence in Boston proves. 

He was a cousin of one of the best loved actors 
who ever trod the American stage — Joseph Jefferson ; 
but their careers were very different, for Jefferson, 
in the last quarter century of his life confined him- 
self to a few parts — practically to four, Bob Acres, 
Eip Yan Winkle, Dr. Pangloss and Cabel Plummer. 
In these he was inimitable. Something is gained and 
lost, of course, by either of these methods ; one is in- 
clined to think the wiser plan, that making for the 
greatest achievement, is a wide diversity of parts, 
and constant creation of new ones. And yet, when 
one looks back upon Jefferson's delicate and cameo- 
clear impersonations, one would not have him dif- 
ferent. 

Joseph Jefferson was the third of his name to 
challenge American theatre-goers. His grandfather, 
born in England, in 1774, came to America twenty- 
three years later and spent the remainder of his life 
here, gaining some reputation as a comedian. His 
father is said to have had little ability, and to have 
been careless and improvident. The third of the 
name was born in Philadelphia in 1829, and began 
his stage career at the age of three, appearing as the 
child in " Pizarro," which must have frightened him 
nearly to death. 

His father died when he was only fourteen, and 
the lad joined a company of strolling players, who 
made their way through Texas, and during the war 

178 



The Stage 

with Mexico, followed the American army into Mexi- 
can territory. American drama was in no great 
demand, so at Matamoras Jefferson opened a stall for 
the sale of coffee and other refreshments, making 
enough money to get back to the United States. 

For the next ten years he appeared in stock com- 
panies in the larger eastern cities, meeting such 
players as Edwin Forrest, James E. Murdoch, and 
Edwin Adams ; but the one who influenced him most 
was his own half-brother, Charles Burke, an unusual- 
ly accomplished serio-comic. William Warren also 
ranked high in his affections. 

The turning point of his career came in 1857 when 
he became associated with Laura Keene at her theatre 
in New York. Here his first part was one with 
which he was afterwards so closely identified, that 
of Dr. Pangloss, and then came " Our American 
Cousin," in which he gained a notable success as Asa 
Trenchard, and in which Edward A. Sothcrn laid the 
foundation of the fantastic character of Lord Dun- 
dreary, which was to make him famous. A year later, 
he created another of his great characters, Caleb 
Plummer, in " The Cricket on the Hearth," and soon 
afterwards, the most famous of all. Kip Van AVinkle, 
which remained to the end his supreme impersona- 
tion. 

After that time, his career was a golden and happy 
one. He won the affection of the American public 
as perhaps no recent player has ever done. His art 
had a peculiarly wide appeal because it was fine and 
sweet J he won sympathy and inspired affection; and 

179 



A Guide to Biography 

seemed the very embodiment of the tender, artless 
and lovable characters it was his joy to represent. 

Jefferson's death marked the passing of the last of 
the " old school " — that mellow, fluent, and accom- 
plished circle of players who seem so different to their 
successors. But public taste is different too. We 
care no longer for the rantings and heroics of Vir- 
ginius and Spartacus and all the rest of those toga- 
clothed gentlemen who differed from each other only 
in their names. We demand something more subtle, 
more — yes, let us say it! — intellectual. The modern 
who came nearest to answering this demand, to show- 
ing us the complex thing which we know human 
nature to be, was Richard Mansfield. A great artist, 
whom no difficulty appalled, he gave the American 
public, season after season, the most significant 
procession of worthy dramas that one man ever pro- 
duced. 

Mansfield was born in Heligoland in 1857, and 
studied for the East Indian civil service, but came to 
Boston and opened a studio, studied art, and then 
suddenly abandoned it for the stage. Curiously 
enough, he began with small parts in comic opera, 
and a few years later, made one of the funniest 
Kokos who ever appeared in " The Mikado." But 
he soon changed to straight drama, and the first great 
success of his career was as Baron Chevrial in " A 
Parisian Romance," a part which was given him after 
other actors had refused to take it, and in which he 
created a real sensation. His reputation was secure 
after that, and grew steadily until the swift and com- 

180 



The Stage 

plete collapse from over-work, wliicli ended his life 
at the age of fifty-one. 

Are there any great players alive in America to- 
day ? E. H. Sothern, perhaps, comes nearest to 
greatness, and has at least won respectful attention 
by a sincerity and earnestness which have accom- 
plished much. He is the son of Edward Askew Soth- 
ern, whose career was a most peculiar one. Intended 
for the ministry, he chose the stage instead, appar- 
ently with no talent for it, and for six or seven years, 
only the most unimportant of minor parts were en- 
trusted to him. 

One of these was that of Lord Dundreary in " Our 
American Cousin." It consisted of only a few lines 
and Sothern accepted it under protest, but he made 
such a hit in it that it was amplified and became the 
principal part of the play. In fact, the play became, 
in the end, a series of monologues for Dundreary. It 
had some remarkable runs, one, for instance, in 
London, for four hundred and ninety-six consecutive 
nights. Sothern continued playing the part until his 
death. His son is undoubtedly a far gi-eater actor, 
and may achieve a high and lasting fame. 

Associated with him in many of his later and more 
ambitious productions has been Julia Marlowe, un- 
doubtedly the most finished and accomplished actress 
in America. She had a thorough training, having 
been on the stage since her twelfth year, and devot- 
ing herself closely to the study of her art. Her sin- 
cerity, too, promises much for the future. After 
Sothern, Otis Skinner is perhaps the most note- 

181 



A Guide to Biography 

wortbj, and after him, well, anyone of a dozen, 
whom it is needless to name here. 

It was Joseph Jefferson who remarked that " all 
the good actors are dead." He meant, of course, 
that the present seems always of little worth when 
compared with the past ; and this is the case not only 
with the theatre, but in some degree with all the arts. 
It is especially true of the theatre, however, because 
the player lives only in the memories of those who 
saw him, and memory sees things, as it were, through 
a golden glow. 

SUMMARY 

Booth, Junius Brutus. Born at London, May 1, 
1796; first appearance, 1813; came to America, 1821; 
died on a Mississippi steamboat, November 30, 1852. 

Booth, Edwin. Born at Bel Air, Maryland, No- 
vember 13, 1833; first appearance, 1849; first appear- 
ance as "star," as Sir Giles Overreach, 1857; played 
under management of Lawrence Barrett, 1886-91, in 
" Hamlet " ; founded " The Players' Club," 1888 ; died 
at its club-house, in New York City, June 7, 1893. 

Forrest, Edwin. Born at Philadelphia, March 9, 
1806; first appearance, 1820; first notable success as 
Othello, 1826; last appearance in March, 1871; died at 
Philadelphia, December 12, 1872. 

CusHMAN, Charlotte. Born at Boston, July 23, 
1816; first appearance, 1835; played with Macready, 
1842-44; in London, 1844-48; died at Boston, Febru- 
ary 8, 1876. 

182 



The Stage 

Florence, William James. Born at Albany, New 
York, July 26, 1831; first appearance, 1849; died at 
Philadelphia, November 19, 1891. 

McCuLLOUGH, John. Born at Coleraine, Ireland, 
November 2, 1837; came to America, 1853; first ap- 
pearance, 1855; broke down mentally and physically, 
1884; died in insane asylum at Philadelphia, Novem- 
ber 8, 1885. 

Barrett, Lawrence. Born at Paterson, New Jer- 
sey, April 4, 1838; first appearance, 1853; enlisted in 
28th Massachusetts Volunteers, 1861 ; from 1887 until 
his death closely associated with Edwin Booth; died at 
New York City, March 21, 1891. 

Morris, Clara. Born at Toronto, Canada, 1849 ; 
first appearance, 1861 ; leading lady, 1869 ; joined 
Daly's company, 1870; married Frederick C. Harriott, 
1874. 

MoDJESKA, Helena. Born at Cracow, Poland, Oc- 
tober 12, 1844; first appearance, 1861; first appearance 
in English at San Francisco, 1877; died in California, 
April 8, 1909. 

Anderson, Mary. Born at Sacramento, California, 
July 28, 1859 ; first appearance, 1875 ; married An- 
tonio de Navarro, 1889, and retired from the stage. 

Rehan, Ada. Born at Limerick, Ireland, April 22, 
1860; came to America in childhood; first appearance, 
1874; joined Daly's company, 1879; leading lady there 
until his death in 1899. 

183 



A Guide to Biography 

Drew, John. Born at Philadelphia, in 1853; first 
appearance, 1873 ; leading man in Daly's company, 
1879-99. 

Drew, John, Sr. Born at Duhlin, Ireland, Sep- 
tember 3, 1825; first appearance in New York, 1845; 
died at Philadelphia, May 21, 1862. 

Drew, Mrs. John, Sr. (Louisa Lane). Born at 
London, January 10, 1820; first appearance when mere 
child; came to America, 1828; married John Drew, 
1850; died at Larchmont, New York, August 31, 1897. 

Davenport, Edward Looms. Born at Boston, 
Massachusetts, November 15, 1814; first appearance, 
1836; played in England, 1847-54; died at Canton, 
Pennsylvania, September 1, 1877. 

Davenport, Fanny Elizabeth Vining. Born at 
London, July 6, 1829; began playing baby parts at age 
of three; made first appearance, 1847, as Juliet; mar- 
ried E. L. Davenport, January 8, 1849; first appear- 
ance in New York, 1854. 

Davenport, Fanny Lily Gipsy. Born in London, 
April 10, 1850 ; first American appearance, 1862 ; died 
at Danbury, Massachusetts, September 26, 1898. 

Warren, William. Born at Philadelphia, Novem- 
ber 17, 1812; first appearance, 1832; died at Boston, 
September 21, 1888. 

Jefferson, Joseph. Born at Philadelphia, Febru- 
ary 20, 1829; first appearance on stage as child; first 
became prominent as Asa Trenchard, in " Our Ameri- 
can Cousin," 1858; died at West Palm Beach, Florida, 
April 23, 1905. 

184 



The Stage 

SoTHERN, Edward Askew. Born at Liverpool, Eng- 
land, April 1, 1826 ; first appearance, 1849 ; first Amer- 
ican appearance, 1852 ; made his mark as Lord Dun- 
dreary, 1858; died at London, January 20, 1881. 

SoTHERN, Edward H. Born in London ; appeared as 
child; first took lea<ling part, 1887. 



185 



CHAPTER VII 

SCIENTISTS AND EDUCATORS 

rjlO give even the briefest account, within the 
-■■ limits of a single chapter, of the lives of note- 
worthy American scientists and educators is, of 
course, quite beyond the bounds of possibility. All 
that can be done, even at best, is to mention a few of 
the greatest names and to indicate in outline the par- 
ticular achievements with which they are associated. 
That is all that has been attempted here. There are 
at least a hundred men, in addition to those men- 
tioned in this chapter, whose work is of consequence 
in the development of American science and educa- 
tion. The record of their achievements is an inspir- 
ing one which, if properly told, would occupy many 
volumes. 

In the annals of American science, two names 
stand out with peculiar lustre — John James Audu- 
bon and Louis Agassiz. l^N^either was, strictly speak- 
ing, American, for Agassiz was born in Switzerland 
and did not come to this country until he was nearly 
forty years of age; while Audubon was born in 
French territory, the son of a French naval officer, 
and was educated in France. But the work of both 
men was distinctively American, for Audubon de- 

186 



Scientists and Educators 

voted his life to the study of American birds, and 
Agassiz the Latter part of his to the study and classi- 
fication of American fishes — as well as to services of 
the most valuable kind in the field of geology and 
paleontology. 

Audubon's story is a curious and interesting one. 
His father, the son of a Vendean fisherman, after 
working his way up to the command of a French 
man-of-war, purchased a plantation in Louisiana, 
which at that time belonged to France. He married 
there, and there, in 1780, John James Audubon was 
born. He was a precocious child, and early developed 
a love for nature, which his parents encouraged in 
every way they could. He was especially fond of 
drawing birds and coloring his drawings. He ac- 
quired so much skill in doing this that his father sent 
him to Paris and placed him in the studio of the 
celebrated painter, David. 

It is related of young Audubon that his drawings 
for many years fell so far short of his ideal, that on 
each of his birthdays he regularly made a bonfire of 
all he had produced during the previous year. He 
cared for nothing else, however, and after his return 
to America, his home became a museum of birds' 
eggs and stuffed birds. He took long tramps through 
the wilderness, with no companions save dog and gun, 
all the time adding new drawings to his collection. 
Some birds he was obliged to shoot, afterwards sup- 
porting them in natural positions while he painted 
them; others which he could not approach, he drew 
with the aid of a telescope, representing them amid 

187 



A Guide to Biography 

their natural surroundings, and all with painstaking 
care and exactitude. 

This work, occupying years of time, and accom- 
panied by every sort of suffering and exposure, by 
long trips through the wilderness of the west, in heat 
and cold, snow and rain, was carried forward from 
pure love of nature and enthusiasm for the work it- 
self, without thought or hope of reward. Audubon's 
friends began to consider him a kind of harmless 
madman, for what sane person would devote his life 
to a work so laborious and seemingly so useless? He 
made a little money occasionally by giving drawing- 
lessons; but he was never content except when roam- 
ing the plains and forests, hunting for some new 
specimen. For his ambition was to study and draw 
every kind of bird which lived in America. 

In 1824 he happened to be in Philadelphia, and 
met there a son of Lueien Bonaparte, to whom he 
showed his drawings. The Frenchman was at once 
deeply interested, for he saw their beauty and value, 
and he urged upon Audubon that some arrangement 
be made by which they could be published and given 
to the world. The obstacles in the way of such an 
enterprise were enormous, for the processes of color 
reproduction at that time were slow and expensive, 
and it was estimated that the cost of the entire work 
would exceed a hundred thousand dollars. 

But Audubon had overcome obstacles before that, 
and three years later he issued the prospectus of his 
famous " Birds of America." It was to consist of 
four folio volumes of plates, and the price of each 

188 



Scientists and Educators 

copy was fixed at a thousand dollars. Three years 
more were sj)ent in securing subscriptions, and then 
the work of publication began, though Audubon had 
barely enough money to pay for a single issue. 
Funds came in, however, after t'he appearance of the 
first number, and the work went steadily forward to 
completion in 1839. It was called by the great 
naturalist, Cuvier, " the most magnificent monument 
that art ever raised to ornithology." It contained 
448 beautifully colored plates, showing 1065 species 
of North American birds, each of them life size. 

Before it was completed, Audubon had planned 
another work on similar lines, to be known as " The 
Quadrupeds of America," and set to work at once to 
gather the necessary material, which meant the study 
from life of each of these animals. He even pro- 
jected an extensive trij) to the Rocky Mountains in 
search of material, but was pursuaded by his friends 
to give it up, as he was then nearly sixty years of age, 
and suffering from the effects of his long years of 
exposure. His sons assisted him in the preparation of 
the work, the first volume of which appeared in 1846, 
the last in 1854, three years after his death. 

Audubon's life illustrates strikingly the compelling 
power of devotion to an ideal. Few men have met 
such discouragements as he, and fewer still have 
overcome them. For many years, in all climates, in 
all weathers, pausing at no difficulty or peril, his life 
frequently endangered by wild beasts or still wilder 
savages, he trudged the pathless wilderness, quite 
alone, sleeping under a rude shelter of boughs or in 

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A Guide to Biography 

a hollow tree, living on such game as he could shoot, 
seeking only one thing, new birds, and when he 
found them, observing their habits and setting them 
on paper with an infinite patience. On one occasion, 
rats got into the room where his drawings were 
stored, and destroyed almost all of them; but he set 
to work at once re-drawing them, where most men 
would have given up in despair. His work remains 
to this day the standard one on American birds — a 
mighty monument to the ideals of its maker. 

Jean Louis Rudolphe Agassiz was also a born nat- 
uralist, but no such obstacles confronted him as Au- 
dubon surmounted, nor did he strike out for himself 
a field so absolutely original. Born in Switzerland in 
1807, the descendent of six generations of preachers, 
but destined for the profession of medicine, he re- 
fused to be anything but a naturalist. From his 
earliest years, he showed a passion for gathering 
specimens, and his first collection of fishes was made 
when he was ten years old. He received the very 
best training to be had in Switzerland, France and 
Germany, and early attracted attention for original 
work of the most important description. He came 
to be recognized as the greatest authority on fishes 
in Europe, and his work on fossil fishes^ published in 
1843, was a contribution to science of the first im- 
portance. 

In 1846, Agassiz came to the United States, partly 
to deliver a course of lectures at Boston and partly to 
make himself familiar with the geology and natural 
history of this country. His reception was so cordial 

190 




AGASSIZ 



Scientists and Educators 

and he found so much to interest him here, that he 
accepted the chair of zoology and geology in the 
Lawrence Scientific School at Cambridge, Massa- 
chusetts, and decided to make the United States his 
home. He soon made Cambridge a great scientific 
centre, and proved himself the most inspiring, mag- 
netic and influential teacher of science this country 
has ever seen. 

In succeeding years, he traversed practically the 
entire country, accumulating vast collections of speci- 
mens which formed the foundation of the great 
natural history museum at Cambridge. He was pre- 
paring himself for the publication of a comprehensive 
work to be called " Contributions to the Natural 
History of the United States," the first volume of 
which appeared in 1857. Succeeding years were 
occupied with a journey to Brazil, another around 
Cape Horn, and the establishment of the Pekinese 
Island school of natural history, where he was able to 
carry out his long contemplated plan of teaching 
directly from nature. But his labors had impaired 
his health, and he died in Cambridge in 1873, after 
a short illness. His grave is marked by a boulder 
from the glacier of the Aar, and shaded by pine trees 
brought from his native Switzerland. 

Agassiz was one of the most remarkable teachers 
of science that ever lived. Handsome, enthusiastic, 
overflowing with vitality, and with a learning broad 
and deep, his students found in him a real inspiration 
to intellectual endeavor. His lectures, however 
technical and abstruse their subjects, were of an in- 

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A Guide to Biography 

comparable clarity and simplicity. He was one of the 
first to advocate the teaching of science to women, 
not in its technical details, but in its broad outlines. 

" What I wish for you," he said, one day, address- 
ing a class of girls, " is a culture that is alive and 
active. My instruction is only intended to show you 
the thoughts in nature which science reveals. 

"A physical fact is as sacred as a moral principle," 
he used to say. " Our own nature demands from us 
this double allegiance." 

Of the pupils of Agassiz, not the least famous was 
his son, Alexander, who, after graduating from Har- 
vard, assisted his father in his work, collected many 
specimens for the museum at Cambridge, and was 
finally appointed assistant in zoology there. In the 
following years he put his scientific knowledge to a 
very practical use. In his geological surveys of the 
country, he had been impressed with the richness of 
the copper mines on Lake Superior. For five years, 
he acted as superintendent of the famous Calumet 
and Hecla mines, developing them into the most suc- 
cessful copper mines in the world, and himself gain- 
ing wealth from them which permitted his making 
gifts to Harvard aggregating half a million dollars. 
It was characteristic of him that, after his service 
with the Calumet and Hecla, he resumed his duties 
at the museum at Cambridge, and continued as 
curator until ill health compelled his resignation in 
1885. 

Among other pupils of Agassiz who won more 
than ordinary fame as naturalists may be mentioned 

192 



Scientists and Educators 

Albert Smith Bickmore, Alonzo Howard Clark, 
Charles Frederick Hartt, Alpheus Hyatt, Theodore 
Lyman, Edward Sylvester Morse, Alpheus Spring 
Packard, Frederick Ward Putnam, Samuel Hubbard 
Scudder, Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, William 
Stimpson, Sanborn Tenney, Addison Emory Merrill, 
Burt Green Wilder and Henry Augustus Ward — as 
brilliant a galaxy of names as American science can 
boast, bearing remarkable testimony to the inspiring 
qualities of their great teacher. 

What Agassiz did for geology and natural history, 
Asa Gray to some extent did for botany. Born at 
Paris, iST. Y., in 1810, and at an early age abandoning 
the study of medicine for that of botany, he accepted, 
in 1842, a call to the Fisher professorship of natural 
history at Harvard, a post which he held for over 
thirty years. Gray's work began at the time when 
the old artificial system of classification was giving 
way to the natural system, and he, perhaps more than 
any other one man, established this system firmly on 
the basis of affinity. 

In 1864, he presented to Harvard his herbarium of 
more than two hundred thousand specimens, and his 
botanical library. He remained in charge of the 
herbarium until his death, adding to it constantly, 
until it became one of the most complete in the world. 
His publications upon the subject of botany were 
numerous and of the highest order of scholarship, 
and long before his death he was recognized as the 
foremost botanist of the country. 

Scarcely inferior to him in reputation was John 
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A Guide to Biography 

Torre J. It was to Torrey that Gray owed his first 
lessons in botany, and if the pupil afterwards 
surpassed the master, it was because he was able 
to build on the foundations which the master laid. 
John Torrey, born in New York City in 1796, 
was the son of a Revolutionary soldier, and in 
early life determined to become a machinist, but 
afterwards studied medicine and began to practice 
in ISTew York, taking up the study of botany as an 
avocation. He found the profession of medicine 
uncongenial, and finally abandoned it altogether for 
science, serving for many 3^cars as professor of chem- 
istry and botany at the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons in New York City. The succeeding years 
brought him many honors, and saw many works of 
importance issue from his hands. 

The progress of the last century in the various 
branches of science is an interesting study, and 
America has made no inconsiderable contributions 
to every one of them. In astronomy, six names are 
worthy of mention here. The first of these, John 
William Draper, was noted for his devotion to many 
other lines of science, especially to photography, and 
was the first person in the w^orld to take a photograph 
of a human being. His service to astronomy was in 
the application of photography to that science. In 
1840, he took the first photograph ever made of the 
moon, and a few years later published his " Produc- 
tion of Light by Heat," an early and exceedingly 
important contribution to the subject of spectrum 
analysis. 

194 



Scientists and Educators 

His work in astronomy and more especially in 
physics was carried on most worthily by his son, 
Henry Draper, who, at his home at Hastings-on-the- 
Hudson, built himself an observatory, mounting in 
it a reflecting telescope, which he also made. His 
description of the processes of grinding, polishing, 
silvering, testing and mounting it has remained the 
standard work on the subject. With this telescope 
he took a photograph of the moon which remains one 
of the best that has ever been made. Among his 
other noteworthy achievements were his spectrum 
photographs of 1872 and 1873, and in 1880 his 
photograph of the great nebula in Orion, the first 
photograph of a nebula ever secured. Perhaps the 
most brilliant discovery ever made in physical science 
by an American was that by Draper in 1877, when 
he demonstrated the presence of oxygen in the sun 
so conclusively that it could not be disputed. It was 
a sort of tour de force that took the scientific world 
by surprise and gained its author the widest recogni- 
tion. 

The services of Lewis Morris Rutherford to 
astronomy resembled in many ways those of Draper. 
Starting in life as a lawyer, he abandoned that pro- 
fession at the age of thirty-three to devote his whole 
time to science, principally to the perfection of 
astronomical photography and spectrum analysis. 
The service which photography has rendered to 
astronomy can scarcely be overestimated, and these 
pioneers in the art were laying the foundations for 
its recent wonderful developments. He was the first 

195 



A Guide to Biography 

to attempt to classify the stars according to their 
spectra, and invented a number of instruments of the 
greatest service in star photography. All in all, it is 
doubtful if anyone added more to the development 
of this branch of the science than did he. 

Very different from the services of these men were 
those rendered the science of astronomy by Charles 
Augustus Young. Called to the chair of astronomy 
at Princeton University in 1877, he held that impor- 
tant position for thirty years, his courses a source of 
inspiration to his students. He was a member of 
many important scientific expeditions, invented an 
automatic spectroscope which lias never been dis- 
placed, measured the velocity of the sun's rotation, 
and was a large contributor to public knowledge of 
the science. 

Equally important have been the contributions 
made by Samuel Pierpont Langley, perhaps the 
greatest authority on the sun alive to-day. He 
showed a decided fondness for astronomy even as a 
boy, and at the age of thirty was assistant in the 
observatory at Harvard. Two years later, he was 
invited to fill the chair of astronomy in the Western 
University of Pennsylvania at Pittsburgh, and his 
work there began with the establishment of a com- 
plete time service, the first step toward the present 
daily time service conducted by the government. In 
1870, he began the series of brilliant researches on 
the sun which have placed him at the head of 
authorities on that body. His scientific papers are 
very numerous and his series of magazine articles on 

196 



Scientists and Educators 

" The New Astronomy " did mucli to acquaint the 
public with the rapid development of the science. 
In 1887, he was chosen to the important post of 
secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and his 
recent years have been spent in experimenting with 
aeronautics. 

Simon Newcomb is another who rendered yeoman 
service to the science. Born in Nova Scotia, the son 
of the village schoolmaster, he lived to become one 
of the eight foreign associates of the Institute of 
France, the first native American since Franklin to 
be so honored; to win the Huygens medal, given once 
in twenty years to the astronomer who had done the 
greatest service to the science in that period, and to 
receive the highest degree from practically every 
American college. 

In his autobiography he tells how, at the age of 
five, he began to study arithmetic, at twelve algebra, 
and at thirteen Euclid. At the age of eighteen, plan- 
ning to make his way to the United States, he set out 
on foot, taught school for a year or so, and then 
attracted the attention of Prof. Joseph Henry, of the 
Smithsonian Institution, by sending him a problem in 
algebra. The unusual aptitude for mathematics 
which the boy possessed so impressed Prof. Henry, 
that he set him to work as a computer on the 
Nautical Almanac; but he was soon attracted to 
" exact," or mathematical astronomy, which became 
his life work. Some idea of its importance may be 
gained when it is stated that every astronomer in the 
world to-day uses his determinations of the move- 

197 



A Guide to Biography 

meuts of the planets and the moon; every skipper in 
the world guides his ship by tables which Newcomb 
devised; and every eclipse is computed according to 
his tables. lie supervised the construction and 
mounting of the equatorial telescope in the naval 
observatory at Washington, the Lick telescope, and 
Russia applied to him, in 1873, for aid in placing 
her great telescope. 

A man of humor, sympathy and anecdote, he 
found, in the fall of 1908, that he was suffering from 
cancer, and hastened the work on the moon, which 
was to be his masterpiece. Ten months later, he was 
told that his course was nearly run — and his great 
work was still incomplete. 

" Take me to Washington," he said, " I must work 
while there is time." 

And there, lying in agony on his bed, for three 
weeks he dictated steadily to stenographers on a sub- 
ject which required the utmost concentration. His 
indomitable will alone supported him, and a week 
after the last word had been written, came the end. 
Verily, there was a man ! 

The last of the great American astronomers whom 
we shall mention here is Edward Charles Pickering, 
whose name is so closely connected with the develop- 
ment of the great observatory at Harvard. Born at 
Boston, and educated at the Lawrence Scientific 
School, his first work was in the field of physics, but 
in 1870, he was appointed professor of astronomy 
and geodesy, and director of the Harvard observa- 
tory, which, under his management, has become of 

198 



Scientists and Educators 

the first importance. His principal work has been 
the determination of the relative brightness of the 
stars, and many thousands have been charted. On 
the death of Henry Draper, the study of the spectra 
of the stars by means of photography was continued 
as a memorial to that great scientist, and the results 
obtained have been of the most important character, 
including a star map of the entire heavens. Other 
phases of the science of scarcely less importance have 
been carefully developed, and the work which has 
been done under Pickering's direction, is second to 
none in the history of the science. Not satisfied with 
the Northern hemisphere, a branch has been estab- 
lished in Peru, in which the observatory's methods 
of research have been extended to the south celestial 
pole. So for eighteen years and more, it has kept 
ceaseless watch of the heavens, with an accuracy of 
which the world has hardly a conception. For this 
great work the scientific world must pay tribute to 
the genius and perseverance of Edward Charles Pick- 
ering. 

The second department of science claiming our 
attention is that of paleontology. Here one of the 
most eminent of American names is that of Otlmiel 
Charles Marsh. A graduate of Yale and firmly 
grounded in zoology and kindred sciences by a course 
of study at Heidelberg and Berlin, he returned to 
the United States in 1866 to accept the chair of pale- 
ontology which had been established for him at 
Yale. The remainder of his life was devoted to the 
original investigation of extinct vertebrates, espe- 

199 



A Guide to Biography 

cially in the Rocky Mountain regions. In these ex- 
plorations, more than a thousand new species of 
extinct vertebrates were brought to light, many of 
which possess great scientific interest, representing 
new orders never before discovered in America. So 
important was this work that the national geological 
survey undertook the publication of his reports, 
which formed the most remarkable contributions to 
the subject ever written in this country, attracting 
the attention and admiration of the whole scientific 
world. 

Associated with Marsh as paleontologist for the 
Geological Survey was Edward Drinker Cope, whose 
work was second only to the older man's in impor- 
tance. He also devoted much of his attention to the 
exploration of the Rocky Mountain region, and found 
that there, in the strata of the ancient lake beds, rec- 
ords of the age of mammals had been made and pre- 
served with a fulness surpassing that of any other 
known region on earth. The profusion of vertebrate 
remains brought to light was almost unbelievable. 
Prof. Marsh, who was first in the field, found three 
hundred new tertiary species between 1870 and 1876, 
besides unearthing the remains of two hundred birds 
with teeth, six hundred flying dragons, and fifteen 
hundred sea serpents, some of them sixty feet in 
length. In a single bed of rock not larger than a 
good sized lecture room, he found the remains of no 
less than one hundred and sixty mammals. 

It was this work which Prof. Cope took up and 
carried forward. Its importance may be appreciated 

200 



Scientists and Educators 

when it is stated that among these remains are found 
examples of just such intermediate types of organ- 
isms as must have existed if the succession of life on 
the earth has been an unbroken lineal succession. 
Here are snakes with wings and legs, and birds with 
teeth and other snakelike characteristics, bridging the 
gap between modern birds and reptiles. The line of 
descent of the horse, the camel, the hippopotamus 
and other mammals has been traced to a single 
ancestor, the result being the proof of the theory of 
evolution. 

The whole work of American paleontology has, 
of course, been along these lines. Agassiz himself 
was a living and vital force in it, as were such men 
as Joseph Leidy and H. F. Osborne. 

It is a remarkable fact that one of the few truly 
original and novel ideas the past century can boast, 
and the one which has had the deepest influence on 
geology, had its origin in the brain of an illiterate 
Swiss chamois hunter named Perraudin. Throughout 
the Alps, on lofty crags, great bowlders were often 
found, which had no relation to the geology of the re- 
gion and which were called erratics, because they had 
evidently come there from a distance. But how? 
Scientists explained it in many ways, but it remained 
for the mountaineer to suggest that the bowlders had 
been left in their present positions by glaciers. The 
scientific world laughed at the idea, but ten years 
later, it was brought to the attention of Louis 
Agassiz; he investigated it, became a convert, and 
201 



A Guide to Biography 

saw that its implications extended far beyond the 
Alps, for these erratic bowlders were found on moun- 
tains and plains throughout the northern hemisphere. 
Agassiz found everywhere evidences of glacial action, 
and became convinced that at one time a great ice 
cap had covered the globe down to the higher lati- 
tudes of the northern hemisphere. So came the con- 
ception of a universal Ice Age, now one of the 
accepted tenets of geology. 

The dean of American geologists was Benjamin 
Silliman, who, at the very beginning of the nine- 
teenth century, took up at Yale University the work 
which he was to carry on so successfully for more 
than fifty years. As an inspiring teacher he was 
scarcely less successful than Agassiz at a later day. 
His popular lectures began in 1808 and soon attracted 
to New Haven the brightest young men in the coun- 
try. Among them was James Dwight Dana, who 
was to carry on most worthily the work which Prof. 
Silliman had begun. 

James Dwight Dana was attracted to Yale by 
Prof. Silliman's great reputation and received there 
the inspiration which started him upon a scientific 
career. Three years after his graduation, he was ap- 
pointed assistant to his former instructor, and two 
years later sailed for the South Seas as mineralogist 
and geologist of the United States exploring expedi- 
tion commanded by Charles Wilkes. He was absent 
for three years and spent thirteen more in studying 
and classifying the material he had collected. He 
then resumed his work at Yale, succeeding Prof. 

202 



Scientists and Educators 

Silliman in the chair of geology and mineralogy. 
His work was recognized throughout the world as 
most important, and many honors were conferred 
ujDon him. 

Another famous name in American geology is that 
of John Strong Newberry. His name is connected 
principally with the explorations of the Columbia 
and Colorado rivers. He was afterwards appointed 
professor of geology and paleontology at the Colum- 
bia College School of Mines, and took charge of that 
department in the autumn of 1866. During his con- 
nection with the institution, he created a museum of 
over one hundred thousand specimens, principally 
collected by himself, containing the best representa- 
tion of the mineral resources of the United States 
to be found anywhere. 

Among the pupils of Prof. Silliman who after- 
wards won a wide reputation was Josiah Dwight 
Whitney. Graduating from Yale in 1839, he spent 
five years studying in Europe, and then, returning to 
America, was connected with the survey of the Lake 
Superior region, of Iowa, of the upper Missouri, 
and of California, issuing a number of books giv- 
ing the results of these investigations, and in 
1865, being called to the chair of geology at Har- 
vard. 

Still another of Prof. Silliman's pupils was Edward 
Hitchcock, whose life was an unusually interesting 
one. His parents were poor and he spent his boy- 
hood working on a farm or as a carpenter, gaining 
such education as he could by studying at night. 

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A Guide to Biography 

Deciding to enter the ministry, he managed to work 
his way through Yale theological seminary, graduat- 
ing at the age of twenty-seven. It was here that he 
came under the influence of Prof. Silliman, and after 
a laboratory course and much field work, he was 
chosen professor of chemistry and natural history at 
Amherst College. He held this position for twenty 
years, and in 1845 was chosen president of the col- 
lege, transforming it, before his retirement nine 
years later, from a poor and struggling institu- 
tion into a well-endowed and firmly established one. 
He had meanwhile served as state geologist of 
Massachusetts, and completed the first survey of 
an entire state ever made by authority of a govern- 
ment. 

The most important recent contribution to Ameri- 
can geology has been the three volume work issued in 
1904-5, under the joint editorship of Thomas C. 
Chamberlain and Rollin D. SaHsbury. Both are 
geologists of wide experience, and their work pre- 
sents the present status of the science interestingly 
and simply. 

America has had her full share of daring and 
successful surgeons, and in the science of surgery 
stands to-day second to no nation on earth, but per- 
haps the most famous American surgeon who ever 
lived was Valentine Mott. Dr. Mott was descended 
from a long line of Quaker ancestors, and was born 
in 1785. His father was a physician, and Dr. Mott 
began his medical and surgical studies at the age of 

204 



Scientists and Educators 

nineteen, first in New York City, and afterwards in 
the hospitals of London, where he made a specialty 
of the study of practical anatomy by the method of 
dissection. At that time there was in this country 
a deep-seated prejudice against the use of the human 
body for this purpose, and the experience which Dr. 
Mott secured in London, and which stood him in such 
good stead in after years, would have been impossible 
of attainment here. A year was also spent in Edin- 
burgh, and finally, in 1809, Dr. Mott returned to 
America with an exceptional equipment. 

His skill won him a wide reputation and he 
was soon recognized as one of the first surgeons of 
the age. His boldness and originality were excep- 
tional, and his success was no doubt due in some 
degree to his constant practice throughout his life of 
performing every novel and important operation 
upon a cadaver before operating upon the living sub- 
ject. To describe in detail the operations which he 
originated would be too technical for such a book as 
this, but many of them were of the first importance. 
Sir Astley Cooper said of him : "" Dr. Mott has per- 
formed more of the great operations than any man 
living, or that ever did live." He possessed all the 
qualifications of a great operator, extraordinary keen- 
ness of sight, steadiness of nerve, and physical vigor. 
He could use his left hand as skillfully as his right, 
and developed a dexterity which has never been sur- 
passed. 

It should be remembered that in those days the use 
of ansesthetics had not yet been discovered, and every 

205 



A Guide to Biography 

operation had to be performed upon the conscious 
subject, as he lay strapped upon the table shrieking 
with agony. To perform an operation under such 
circumstances required an iron nerve. Dr. Mott was 
one of the first to recognize the value of anaesthetics, 
and his use of them, immediately following their dis- 
covery, greatly facilitated their raj)id and general in- 
troduction. 

It is one of the boasts of American medicine that 
the first man in the world to conceive the idea that 
the administration of a definite drug might render 
a surgical operation painless was an American- 
Crawford W. Long. Dr. Long graduated from the 
medical department of the University of Pennsyl- 
vania in 1839. When a student, he had once inhaled 
ether for its intoxicant effects, and while partially 
under the influence of the drug, had noticed that a 
chance blow to his shin produced no pain. This 
gave him the idea that ether might be used in surgi- 
cal operations, and on March 30, 1842, at Jefferson, 
Georgia, he used it with entire success. He repeated 
the experiment several times, but he did not entirely 
trust the evidence of these experiments. So he de- 
layed announcing the discovery until he had sub- 
jected it to further tests, and while these experiments 
were going on, another American, Dr. W. T. G. 
Morton, of Boston, also hit upon the great discovery 
and announced it to the world. 

Dr. Morton was a dentist who, in 1841, introduced 
a new kind of solder by which false teeth could be 
fastened to gold plates. Then, in the endeavor to 

206 



Scientists and Educators 

extract teeth without pain, he tried stimulants, 
opium and magnetism without success, and finally 
sulphuric ether. On September 30, 1846, he ad- 
ministered ether to a patient and removed a tooth 
without pain; the next day he repeated the experi- 
ment, and the next. Then, filled with the immense 
possibilities of his discovery, he went to Dr. J. C. 
Warren, one of the foremost surgeons of Boston, and 
asked permission to test it decisively on one of the 
patients at the Boston hospital during a severe opera- 
tion. The request was granted, and on October 16, 
1846, the test was made in the presence of a large 
body of surgeons and students. The patient slept 
quietly while the surgeon's knife was plied, and 
awoke to an astonished comprehension that the 
dreadful ordeal was over. The impossible, the 
miraculous, had been accomplished ; suffering man- 
kind had received such a blessing as it had never re- 
ceived before, and American surgery had scored its 
greatest triumph. Swiftly as steam could carry it, 
the splendid news was heralded to all the world, and 
its truth was soon established by repeated experi- 
ments. 

To tell of the work of the men who came after 
these pioneers in the field of surgery and medicine is 
a task quite beyond the compass of this little volume. 
There are at least a score whose achievements are of 
the first importance, and nowhere in the world has 
this great science, which has for its aim the allevia- 
tion of human suffering, reached a higher develop- 
ment. 

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A Guide to Biograplij 

Among the physicists of the country, Joseph 
Henry takes a high place. His boyhood and youth 
were passed in a struggle for existence. He was 
placed in a store at the age of ten, and remained 
there for five years. At the age of fifteen he was 
apprenticed to a watchmaker, and had some thought 
of studying for the stage, but during a brief illness, 
he started to read Dr. Gregory's " Lectures on Ex- 
perimental Philosophy, Astronomy and Chemistry," 
and forthwith decided to become a scientist. He 
began to study in the evenings, managed to take a 
course of instruction at the academy at Albany, New 
York, and finally, in 1826, was made professor of 
mathematics there. 

Almost at once began a series of brilliant experi- 
ments in electricity which have linked his name with 
that of Benjamin Franklin as one of the two most 
original investigators in that branch of science which 
this country has ever produced. His first work was 
the improving of existing forms of apparatus, and 
his first important discovery was that of the electro- 
magnet. His development of the " intensity " mag- 
net in 1830 made the electric telegraph a possibility. 
Two years later he was called to the chair of natural 
philosophy at Princeton University, where he con- 
tinued his investigations, many of which have been 
of permanent value to science. In 1846, he was 
elected first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 
and removed to Washington, where the last forty 
years of his life were passed in the development of 
the great scientific establishment of which he was the 

208 



Scientists and Educators 

head. He steadily refused the most flattering offers 
of other positions, among them the presidency of 
Princeton, and like Agassiz, he might have answered, 
when tempted by larger salaries, " I cannot afford to 
waste my time in making money." To his efforts is 
largely due the establishment of the national light- 
house system, as well as that of the national weather 
bureau. 

Besides his services to American science as in- 
structor at Harvard College, Louis Agassiz rendered 
another when he persuaded Arnold Guyot, his col- 
league in the college at Neuchatel, to accompany him 
to this country. Guyot was at that time forty years 
old, and was already widely known as a geologist and 
naturalist, and the delivery of a series of lectures 
before the Lowell Institute, established his reputa- 
tion in this country. He was soon invited to the 
chair of physical geography and geology at Prince- 
ton, which he held until his death. He founded the 
museum at Princeton, which has since become one 
of the best of its kind in the United States. Perhaps 
he is best known for the series of geographies he pre- 
pared, and which were at one time widely used in 
schools throughout the United States. 

Perhaps no family has been more closely asso- 
ciated with xlmerican science than that of the Hu- 
guenot Le Conte, who settled at New Eochelle, New 
York, about the close of the seventeenth century, 
moving afterwards to New Jersey. There, in 1782, 
Lewis Le Conte was bom. He was graduated at 
Columbia at the age of seventeen and started to study 

209 



A Guide to Biography 

medicine, but was soon afterwards called to the man- 
agement of the family estates of Woodsmanston, in 
Georgia. There he established a botanical garden 
and a laboratory in which he tested the discoveries 
of the chemists of the day. His death resulted from 
poison that was taken into his system while dressing 
a wound for a member of his family. 

His son, John Le Conte, after studying medicine 
and beginning the practice of his profession at Sa- 
vannah, Georgia, was called to the chair of natural 
philosophy and chemistry at Franklin College, and 
after some years in educational work, was appointed 
professor of physics and industrial mechanics in the 
University of California, which position he held until 
his death, serving also for some years as president 
of the University. His scientific work extended over 
a period of more than half a century, being confined 
almost exclusively to physical science, in which he 
was one of the first authorities. 

Another son of Lewis, Joseph Le Conte, like his 
brother, studied medicine and started to practice it; 
but in 1850, attracted by the great work being done 
by Louis Agassiz, he entered the Lawrence Scientific 
School at Harvard, devoting his attention especially 
to geology. After holding a number of minor posi- 
tions, he became professor of geology and natural 
history in the University of California in 1869, and 
his most important work was done there in the shape 
of original investigations in geology, which placed 
him in the front rank of American geologists. 

Lewis Le Conte had a brother, John Eatlian Le 
210 



Scientists and Educators 

Conte, who was also widely known as a naturalist of 
unusual attainments. He published many papers 
upon various branches of botany and zoology, and 
collected a vast amount of material for a natural 
history of xVmerican insects, only a part of which was 
published. His son, John Lawrence Le Conte, was 
a pupil of Agassiz, and conducted extensive explora- 
tions of the Lake Superior and upper Mississippi 
regions, and of the Colorado river. He afterwards 
made a number of expeditions to Honduras, Panama, 
Europe, Egypt and Algiers, collecting material for a 
work on the fauna of the world, which, however, was 
left uncompleted at his death. 

American science recently suffered a heavy loss in 
the death of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, one of the 
most brilliant of the pupils of Agassiz, and from 1864 
until the time of his death, connected with the geo- 
logical department of Harvard University, rising to 
the full professorship in geology, which he held for 
over twenty years, and to the position of dean of the 
Lawrence Scientific School. He did much to increase 
public interest in and knowdedge of the development 
of the science by frequent popular articles in the 
leading magazines, in addition to more technical 
books and memoirs intended especially for scientists. 

Of living scientists, we can do no more than men- 
tion a few. Perhaps the most famous, and dearest to 
the popular heart is John Burroughs, a nature phi- 
losopher, if there ever was one, a keen observer of the 
life of field and forest, and the author of a long list 
of lovable books. One of the leaders in the " return 

211 



A Guide to Biography 

to nature " movement wliicli has reached such wide 
proportions of recent years, he has held his position 
as its prophet and interpreter against the assaults of 
younger, more energetic, but narrower men. 

Prominent in the same field is Liberty Hyde 
Bailey, since 1903 director of the College of Agri- 
culture at Cornell University. His early training 
took place under Asa Gray, and his attention has been 
devoted principally to botanical and horticultural 
subjects. He has written many books, his principal 
work being his Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, 
which has just been completed. Other recent im- 
portant contributions to science have been made by 
Vernon L. Kellogg, whose work has dealt princi- 
pally with American insects, and whose recent book 
on that subject has been recognized as a standard 
authority; by Charles Edward Bessey, professor of 
botany at the University of Nebraska since 1884, a 
pupil of Dr. Asa Gray and the author of a number of 
valued books upon the subject which has been his 
life work ; by George Frederick Barker, now emeritus 
professor of physics in the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, and the recipient of high honors at home and 
abroad; and by many others whom it is not necessary 
to mention here. 

It will be evident enough from the foregoing that 
American science can boast no men of commanding 
genius — no men, that is, to rank with Dai*win, or 
Huxley, or Lord Kelvin, or Sir Isaac Newton, to 
mention only Englishmen. Its record has been one 
of respectable achievement rather than of brilliant 

212 



Scientists and Educators 

originality, but is yet one of which we have no reason 
to be ashamed. 

Most of the men mentioned in this chapter have, 
in the widest sense been educators. Agassiz, Gray, 
Silliman, Guyot — all were educators in the fullest 
and truest way. It remains for us to consider a few 
others who have labored in this country for the 
spread of knowledge. That the present educational 
system of the United States is not a spontaneous 
growth, but has been carefully fostered and directed, 
goes without saying. It is the result, first, of a wise 
interest and support on the part of the state, which 
early recognised the importance of educating its citi- 
zens, and, second, of the self-sacrificing efforts of a 
number of intelligent, earnest, and public-spirited 
men. 

One of the first of these was Horace Mann, born in 
Massachusetts in 1796, the son of a poor farmer. 
His struggle to gain an education was a desperate one, 
and its story cannot but be inspiring. As a child he 
earned his school books by braiding straw, and his 
utmost endeavors, between the ages of ten and 
twenty, could secure him no more than six weeks' 
schooling in any one year. Consequently he was 
twenty-three years of age when he graduated from 
Brown University, instead of seventeen or eighteen, 
as would have been the case had he had the usual 
opportunities. He went to work at once as a tutor in 
Latin and Greek, studied law, was admitted to the 
bar, elected to the state legislature and afterwards 

213 



A Guide to Biography 

to the senate, and finally entered upon his real 
work as secretary to the Massachusetts board of 
education. 

He introduced a thorough reform into the school 
system of the state, made a trip of inspection through 
European schools, and by his lectures and writings 
awakened an interest in the cause of education which 
had never before been felt. His reports were re- 
printed in other states, attaining the widest circula- 
tion. It is noteworthy that as early as 1847, he ad- 
vocated the disuse of corporal punishment in school 
discipline. After a service of some years as member 
of Congress, during which he threw all his influence 
against slavery, he accepted the presidency of An- 
tioch College, at Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he con- 
tinued until his death. It was there that the experi- 
ment of co-education was tried, and found to work 
successfully, and the foundations laid for one of the 
most characteristic of recent great development of 
higher school education in America. Oberlin College, 
also in Ohio, had by a few years preceded Dr. Mann's 
experiment, but the latter's great reputation as an 
educator caused his ardent advocacy of co-education 
to carry great weight with the public. From this 
time on it became a custom, as state universities 
opened in the west, to admit women, and the custom 
gradually spread to the east and even to some of the 
larger colleges supported by private endowments. 

Turning to the three great universities, Harvard, 
Yale, and Princeton, which have done so much for 
the intellectual welfare of the country, we find a 

214 



Scientists and Educators 

galaxy of brilliant names. On the list of Harvard 
presidents, three stand out pre-eminent — Josiah 
Quincy, Edward Everett, and Charles William Eliot. 
Josiah Quincy, third of the name of the great Massa- 
chusetts Quincys, graduated at Harvard in 1790 at 
the head of his class, studied law, drifted inevitably 
into politics, held a number of offices, which do not 
concern us here, and finally, after a remarkable term 
as mayor of Boston, was, in 1829, chosen president 
of Harvard. The work that he did there was im- 
portant in the extreme. He introduced the system of 
marking which continued in use for over forty years; 
instituted the elective system, which permitted the 
student to shape his course of study to suit the career 
which he had chosen ; secured large endowments, and, 
when he retired from the presidency in 1845, left the 
college in the foremost position among American 
institutions of learning. Edward Everett, who was 
president of the college from 1846-49, was more 
prominent as a statesman than as an educator, and 
an outline of his career will be found in " Men of 
Action." The third of the trio, Charles William 
Eliot, whose term as president of the college covered 
a period of forty years, is rightly regarded as one of 
the greatest, if not the greatest educator this country 
has produced. 

Graduating from Harvard in 1853, at the age of 
nineteen, he devoted his attention principally to 
chemistry, and, after some years of teaching, and of 
study in Europe, was, in 1865, appointed professor 
of chemistry in the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 

215 



A Guide to Biography 

nology. The same year, a revolution occurred in the 
government of Harvard, which was transferred from 
the state legislature to the graduates of the college. 
The effect of the change was greatly to strengthen 
the interest of the alumni in the management of the 
university, and to prepare the way for extensive and 
thorough reforms. Considerable time was spent in 
searching for the right man for president and finally, 
in 1869, Prof. Eliot was chosen. 

That the right man had been found was evident 
from the first. " King Log has made room for King 
Stork," wrote Oliver Wendell Holmes, then professor 
of anatomy and physiology at Harvard, to John Mot- 
ley. " Mr. Eliot makes the corporation meet twice 
a month instead of once. He comes to the meeting of 
every faculty, ours among the rest, and keeps us up 
to eleven and twelve o'clock at night discussing new 
arrangements. I cannot help being amused at some 
of the scenes we have in our medical faculty — this 
cool, grave young man proposing in the calmest way 
to turn everything topsy turvy, taking the reins into 
his hands and driving as if he were the first man that 
ever sat on the box. 

" ' How is it, I should like to ask,' said one of our 
members, the other day, ' that this faculty has gone 
on for eighty years managing its own affairs and do- 
ing it well, and now within three or four months it is 
proposed to change all our modes of carrying on the 
school ? It seems very extraordinary, and I should 
like to know how it happens.' 

I can answer Dr. 's question very easily,' 

216 



U i 




ELIOT 



Scientists and Educators 

said the bland, grave joimg man. ' There is a new 
president.' 

" The tranquil assurance of this answer had an 
effect such as I hardly ever knew produced by the 
most eloquent sentences I ever heard uttered." 

The bland young man's innovations did not seem 
to do much harm to Harvard, for under his adminis- 
tration, her financial resources have been multiplied 
by ten, as has the number of her teachers, while the 
number of her students has been multiplied by five. 
Dr. Eliot has grown into the real head of the 
educational system of this country ; his influence has 
wrought vast changes in every department of teach- 
ing, from the kindergarten to the university. It was 
his idea that common school education and college 
education ought to be flexible, ought to be made to fit 
the needs of the pupil. The result has been the broad 
development of the elective system — broader than Jo- 
siah Quincy ever dreamed of. The same system has 
changed the whole aspect of the teaching profession, 
resulting in the demand for a competent training in 
some specialty for every teacher. 

Dr. Eliot, who is in a sense the first living citi- 
zen of America, has not attained that position 
merely by success in his profession. He has devoted 
time and thought to the great problems of our govern- 
ment, and has taken an active part in many public 
movements — the race question, the relations of capi- 
tal and labor, the movement for universal arbitration. 
He has been honored by France, by Italy, and by 
Japan, and resigned from his great office, in 1909, at 

217 



A Guide to Biography 

the age of seventy-five, with mental and physical 
powers in splendid condition, not to retire from active 
life, but to devote himself even more wholly to the 
service of his countrymen. In this age of commercial 
domination, a career such as Dr. Eliot's is more 
than usually inspiring. 

In the history of the adminstration of Yale univer- 
sity, the most striking personalities are the two Tim- 
othy Dwights and Noah Porter. The first Timothy 
Dwight, born in 1752, and graduating from Yale at 
the age of seventeen, began to teach, and at the out- 
break of the Revolution, enlisted as Chaplain in Par- 
son's brigade of the Connecticut line. It was at this 
time he wrote a number of stirring patriotic songs, 
one of which, " Columbia," still lives. At the close of 
the war, he continued preaching and also opened an 
academy, at which women were admitted to the same 
courses with men, and which soon acquired consid- 
erable reputation. In 1795, he was called to the presi- 
dency of Yale, a position which he held until his 
death. His administration marked the beginning of 
a new era in the history of the college. At his acces- 
sion, the college had about one hundred students, and 
the instructors consisted of the president, one pro- 
fessor and three tutors. He established permanent 
professorships and chose such men to fill them as Jere- 
miah Day, Benjamin Silliman, and James Kingsley. 
The result of this policy was a steady growth in the 
number of students, until, at his death, they had in- 
creased to over three hundred. 

jSToah Porter, who came to the presidency in 1871, 
218 



Scientists and Educators 

had been graduated from the college forty years be- 
fore, during which time he had studied theology, held 
a number of important charges, was called to the 
chair of moral philosophy at Yale, and finally elevated 
to the presidency. His work was most important, one 
feature of it being the introduction of elective stud- 
ies, though he insisted also upon a required course, as 
opposed to the Harvard system. Sonle of the Uni- 
versity's finest buildings were erected during his ad- 
ministration, and at its close the student body num- 
bered nearly eleven hundred. 

He was succeeded in 188G by Timothy D wight, 
grandson of the elder president Dwight, who, for 
many years has been closely associated with the Uni- 
versity, its financial growth being largely due to his 
efforts. Under his management the growth of the 
institution was unprecedented, the number of stu- 
dents increasing nearly fifty per cent within five 
years. He was also prominently identified with the 
general educational movement throughout the coun- 
try, and his " True Ideal of an American Univer- 
sity," published in 1872, attracted much attention. 

Princeton has also had its share of eminent men, 
among them Jonathan Edwards, John Witherspoon, 
and James McCosh. Jonathan Edwards was one of 
the most remarkable characters in American history. 
Born in 1703, he was the fifth of eleven children and 
the only son. As a mere child, he developed uncom- 
mon qualities, entered Yale College at the age of 
twelve and graduated at the age of seventeen. His 
father was a clergyman, and the boy had been brought 

219 



A Guide to Biography 

up in a household and community intensely religious, 
so that he very early began to have "a variety of con- 
cerns and exercises about his soul." It was inevita- 
ble, of course, that he should become a minister, and, 
at the age of nineteen, was ordained and began to 
preach at a small church in Kew York City. Ed- 
wards seems to have been afflicted from the first with 
what is in these days irreverently called an in-growing 
conscience, and early formulated for himself a set 
of seventy resolutions of the most exalted nature, 
which, however praiseworthy in themselves, were too 
high and good for human nature's daily food, and 
must have made him a most uncomfortable person to 
live with. He developed, however, into a powerful 
preacher, and his services were much sought, espe- 
cially at revivals. One of his sermons, called " Sin- 
ners in the Hands of an Angry God," is said to 
have created a profound imj)ression wherever 
delivered. 

A difference with his congregation at Northamp- 
ton caused him to resign his pastorate there, and, de- 
clining a number of calls to established parishes, he 
went as a missionary to the Housatonick Indians, at 
so small an income that his wife and daughters were 
forced to labor with the needle to support the family. 
It was while engaged in this work, that an unexpected 
call came to him to take the presidency of Princeton. 
He accepted and was installed as president early in 
1758. At once he began a series of reforms in the 
college administration, but an epidemic of sraall-pox 
broke out in the neighborhood, and Edwards, expos- 

220 



Scientists and Educators 

ing himself to it fearlessly, contracted the disease and 
died thirty-four days after his installation. 

Jonathan Edwards probably came as near to the 
old idea of a saint as America ever produced. Self- 
denying, stern, of an exalted piety, and intensely re- 
ligious, he lived in a world of his own, and was re- 
garded with no little awe and trembling. That he 
was a power for good cannot be doubted, and his ser- 
mons are still read, Avhere those of his contempora- 
ries have long since been forgotten. 

Much more important to Princeton, was John 
Witherspoon, who came to the presidency in 1768, 
after a distinguished career in Scotland, one of the 
incidents of which was being taken a prisoner while 
incautiously watching the battle of Falkirk. He never 
wholly recovered from the effects of the imprison- 
ment which followed. He brought with him from 
Scotland a valuable library which he gave to the col- 
lege, and, finding the college treasury empty, he un- 
dertook a vigorous campaign to replenish it, making 
a tour of New England, and even extending his quest 
as far as Jamaica and the West Indies. Through his 
administrative ability and the changes and additions 
which he made in the course of study, the college re- 
ceived a great impetus. 

The service to his adopted country by which With- 
erspoon will be longest remembered, was the course 
he followed at the beginning of the Revolution. From 
the first, he took the side of the colonies, and by pre- 
cept and example, held not only the great body of 
Presbyterians true to that cause, but also the Scotch 

221 



A Guide to Biography 

and Scotch-Irish, who were naturally Tories by sym- 
pathy. He was a member of the Continental Con- 
gress, urged ceaselessly the passage of the Declaration 
of Independence, was one of its signers, and as a 
member of succeeding Congresses, distinguished him- 
self by his services. After the close of the war, he 
returned to Princeton and devoted the remainder of 
his life to its administration. 

Greatest of the three as an educator was James Mc- 
Cosh. A Scotchman, like Witherspoon, a student of 
the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, a pupil 
of Thomas Chalmers, he was ordained to the ministry 
in 1835, and was a leading spirit in the movement 
which culminated in the establishment of the Free 
Church of Scotland. His publications on philosophi- 
cal subjects brought him the appointment as profes- 
sor of logic and metaphysics in Queen's College, Bel- 
fast, where he remained for sixteen years, drawing to 
the college a large body of students, and publishing 
other philosophical works of the first importance. In 
1868, he was chosen president of Princeton, and his 
administration, lasting for nearly a quarter of a cen- 
tury, was remarkably successful. Under him, the 
student attendance nearly doubled, the teaching staff 
was more than doubled, and the resources of the col- 
lege enormously increased. During these years, too, 
he continued his philosophical work, publishing a 
series of volumes which are the most noteworthy of 
their kind ever produced in America. 

The temptation is great to dwell upon other educa- 
tors connected with the great universities: Ira Rem- 

222 



Scientists and Educators 

Ecn, and his contributions to chemistry ; David Starr 
Jordan, and his great work on American fishes; 
Woodrow Wilson, and his contributions to the study 
of American history; Jacob Gould Schurman, and 
his work in the field of ethics ; — to mention only a 
few of them — but there is not space to do so here. 
However, this chapter cannot be closed without some 
reference to the career of a remarkable woman, an 
educator in the truest sense, whose influence for good 
can hardly be estimated — Jane Addams. 

John Bums, the English cabinet minister and la- 
bor leader^ has called her " the only saint America 
has produced." Her sainthood is of the modern kind, 
which devotes itself by practical work to the allevia- 
tion of suffering and the uplifting of humanity, as 
opposed to the old fashioned kind of which we were 
speaking a moment ago in connection with Jonathan 
Edwards. 

Graduating at Rockford College, in 1881, Miss 
Addams, then a delicate girl, spent two years in 
Europe. The sight which impressed her most, and 
which, to a large extent, determined her future 
career, was that of Mile End Road, the most crowded 
and squalid district of London, where she beheld 
a dirty and destitute mob quarreling over food unfit 
to eat. This vision of squalor and sin never left 
her, and the result was the establishment, in 1889, of 
the Social Settlement of Hull House, in the slums of 
Chicago. For Miss Addams had come to the conclu- 
sion that the only way to reach the destitute and 
despairing was to dwell among them. 

223 



A Guide to Biography 

How right she was has been abundantly proved by 
the splendid work Hull House has done. Its object, 
as stated in its charter, is " to provide a center for a 
higher civic and social life; to institute and maintain 
educational and philanthropic enterprises, and to in- 
vestigate and improve the conditions in the industrial 
districts of Chicago." All that it has done, and 
much more ; for it has been a beacon light of progress, 
pointing the way for like undertakings elsewhere. 
But most valuable of all has been Miss Addams'a 
personal influence, the inspiration which her life has 
been to workers everywhere for social betterment, and 
the message which, by tongue and pen, she has given 
to the world. As an example of a useful, devoted and 
well-rounded life, hers stands unique in America to- 
day. 

SUMMARY 

Audubon, John James. Born near New Orleans, 
May 4, 1780; published "Birds of America," 1830-39; 
"Ornithological Biography," 1831-39; "Quadrupeds 
of America," 1846-54; died at New York City, Janu- 
ary 27, 1851. 

Agassiz, Jean Louis Eudolphe. Born at Motier, 
canton of Fribourg, Switzerland, May 38, 1807; pro- 
fessor of natural history at Neuchatel, 1833; studied 
Aar glacier, 1840-41; came to United States, 1846; 
professor of zoology and geology at Cambridge, 1848; 
curator of Cambridge Museum of Comparative Zoology, 
1859; travelled in Brazil, 1865-66; around Cape Horn, 
1871-73; died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 
14, 1873. 

224 



Scientists and Educators 

Agassiz, Alexander. Born at Neuchatel, Switzer- 
land, December 17, 1835; came to United States, 1849; 
graduated at Harvard, 1855; developed Lake Superior 
copper mines, 1865-69 ; curator of Cambridge Museum 
of Comparative Zoology, 1874-85; died at sea, March 
29, 1910. 

Gray, Asa. Born at Paris, Oneida County, New 
York, November 18, 1810; professor of natural history 
at Harvard, 1842-88 ; died at Cambridge, Massachu- 
setts, January 30, 1888. 

ToRREY, John. Born at New York City, August 15, 
1796; professor at Princeton and in College of Physi- 
cians and Surgeons, New York ; State Geologist of New 
York ; United States assayer ; died at New York, March 
10, 1873. 

Draper, John William. Born at St. Helena, near 
Liverpool, England, May 5, 1811; came to America, 
1832 ; professor of chemistry University of New York, 
1839 ; president of the Medical College, 1850-73 ; died 
at Hastings-on-the-Hudson, New York, January 4, 
1882. 

Rutherford, Lewis Morris. Born at Morrisania, 
New York, November 25, 1816; graduated at Williams 
College, 1834; admitted to bar, 1839; abandoned law to 
devote himself to study of physics, 1849 ; died at Tran- 
quillity, New Jersey, May 30, 1892. 

Young, Charles Augustus. Born at Hanover, ¥ew 
Hampshire, December 15, 1834; graduated at Dart- 
mouth, 1858; professor of astronomy at Princeton, 
1877-1905; died at Hanover, New Hampshire, Janu- 
ary 4, 1908. 

225 



A Guide to Biography 

Langley, Samuel Pierpont. Born at Eoxbury, 
Boston, August 22, 1834; secretary Smithsonian Insti- 
tution, 1887-1908. 

Newcomb, Simon. Born at "Wallace, Nova Scotia, 
March 12, 1835; came to United States, 1853; gradu- 
ated Lawrence Scientific School, 1858 ; professor of 
Mathematics, U. S. navy, 1861 ; director Nautical Al- 
manac office, 1877-97; professor mathematics and 
astronomy Johns Hopkins University, 1881—94; died 
at Washington, July 11, 1909. 

Pickering, Edward Charles. Born at Boston, July 
19, 1846; graduated Lawrence Scientific School, 1865; 
professor of astronomy and director of Harvard Ob- 
servatory since 1877. 

Marsh, Othniel Charles. Born at Lockport, New 
York, October 29, 1831 ; professor paleontology Yale 
University, 1866, to death at New Haven, March 18, 
1899. 

Cope, Edward Drinker. Born at Philadelphia, 
July 28, 1840 ; professor of natural sciences, Haverford 
College, 1864—67; paleontologist to United States Geo- 
logical Survey, 1868 to death at Philadelphia, April 
12, 1897. 

SiLLiMAN, Benjamin. Born at North Stratford, 
Connecticut, August 8, 1779; graduated at Ycle, 1796; 
tutor there, 1799, and professor, 1802; professor emeri- 
tus, 1853; died at New Haven, Connecticut, November 
24, 1864. 

Dana, James Dwigiit. Born at Utica, New York, 
February 12, 1813; graduated at Yale, 1833; assistant 

226 



Scientists and Educators 

to Professor Silliman, 1836-38; professor of geology 
and natural history, 1850-64; died at New Haven, 
April 14, 1895. 

Newberry, John Strong. Born at Windsor, Con- 
necticut, December 22, 1822; professor of geology at 
school of mines, Columbia College, 1866-90; state 
geologist of Ohio, 1869; died at New Haven, Connect- 
icut, December 7, 1892. 

Whitney, Josiah Dwight. Born at Northampton, 
Massachusetts, November 23, 1819 ; graduated at Yale, 
1839; geologist with New Hampshire survey, 1840-42; 
Lake Superior, 1847-49; state chemist of Iowa, 1855; 
state geologist of California, 1860-74; professor of 
geology at Harvard, 1865 to death at Lake Sunapee, 
New Hampshire, August 18, 1896. 

Hitchcock, Edward, Born at Deerfield, Massachu- 
setts, May 24, 1793; professor of chemistry, Amherst 
College, 1825; president of the college, 1845-54; died 
at Amherst, Massachusetts, February 27, 1864. 

MoTT, Valentine. Born at Glen Cove, Long Island, 
August 20, 1785; graduated Columbia College, 1806; 
professor of surgery at Columbia, 1810-35; died at 
New York City, April 26, 1865. 

Long, Crawford W. Born at Danielsville, Georgia, 
November 1, 1815; graduated medical department Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, 1839 ; died at Athens, Georgia, 
June 16, 1878. 

Morton, William Thomas Green. Born at Charl- 
ton, Massachusetts, August 19, 1819; practised den- 
tistry at Boston, 1841-58 ; discovered anesthetic prop- 

227 



A Guide to Biogi*aphy 

erties of ether, 1864; died in New York City, July 15, 
1868. 

Henry, Joseph. Born at Albany, New York, De- 
cember 17, 1797; professor of natural philosopliy at 
Princeton, 1833-46; first secretary of Smithsonian In- 
stitution, 1846; died at Washington, May 13, 1878. 

GuYOT, Arnold Henry. Born near Neuchatel, 
Switzerland, September 28, 1807; came to America, 
1847; professor of physical geography and geology at 
Princeton, 1855; died at Princeton, February 8, 1884. 

Le Conte, John. Born in Liberty County, Georgia, 
December 4, 1818; professor of physics University of 
California, 1869, to death at Berkeley, California, April 
29, 1891. 

Le Conte, Joseph. Born in Liberty County, Georgia, 
February 26, 1823; professor of geology. University of 
California, 1869; died in Yosemite Valley, California, 
July 6, 1901. 

Le Conte, John Lawrence. Born at New York 
City, May 13, 1825 ; surgeon of volunteers during Civil 
War, and chief clerk of mint at Philadelphia from 1878 
until his death there, November 15, 1883. 

Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate, Born at Newport, 
Kentucky, February 22, 1841 ; graduated Lawrence Sci- 
entific School, 1862; professor paleontology at Harvard, 
1868-87; professor of geology, 1887, to death, April 11, 
1906. 

Mann, Horace. Born at Franklin, Massachusetts, 
May 7, 1796; admitted to the bar, 1823; secretary of 
Massachusetts Board of Education, 1837-48; member 

228 



Scientists and Educators 

of Congress, 1848-53; president of Antioch College, 
1852-59 ; died at Yellow Springs, Ohio, August 2, 1859. 

QuiNCY, JosiAH. Born at Boston, February 4, 1772; 
member of Congress, 1805-13 ; mayor of Boston, 1833- 
28; president of Harvard, 1829-45; died at Quincy, 
Massachusetts, July 1, 18G4. 

Eliot, Charles William. Born at Boston, March 
20, 1834; graduated from Harvard, 1853; taught 
mathematics and chemistry in Lawrence Scientific 
School, 1858-69; president of Harvard, 1869-1909. 

Dv7iGHT, Timothy, Born at Northampton, Massa- 
chusetts, May 14, 1752; graduated from Yale, 1769; 
president of Yale, 1795-1817; died at New Haven, 
Connecticut, January 11, 1817. 

Porter, Noah. Born at Farmington, Connecticut, 
December 14, 1811; graduated at Yale, 1831; tutor at 
Yale, 1833-35; pastor of Congregational churches at 
New Milford, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachu- 
setts, 1836-46 ; professor of metaphysics at Yale, 1846- 
71; president of Yale, 1871-86; died at New Haven, 
March 4, 1892. 

DwiGHT, Timothy, Born at Norwich, Connecticut, 
November 16, 1828; graduated at Yale, 1849; studied 
divinity, 1851-55; professor of sacred literature, 1858; 
president of Yale, 1886-98. 

Edwards, Jonathan. Born at East Windsor, Con- 
necticut, October 5, 1703; pastor of Congregational 
Church, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1727-50; mis- 
sionary to the Indians, 1751-58; president of Princeton 
College, 1758; died at Princeton, March 23, 1758. 

229 



A Guide to Biography 

WiTHERSPOON, John. Bom in Haddingtonshire, 
Scotland, February 5, 1733; president of Princeton, 
1768; delegate to Continental Congress, 1774-75; died 
near Princeton, September 15, 1794. 

McCosH, James. Born at Carskeoch, Ayrshire, 
Scotland, April 1, 1811; president of Princeton, 1868- 
88; died at Princeton, November 16, 1894. 

Addams, Jane. Born at Cedarville, Illinois, 1860; 
graduated Eockford College, 1881 ; opened Hull House, 
1889. 



230 



CHAPTER VIII 

PHILANTHROPISTS AND REFORMERS 

npHIS lias been a country celebrated for its great 
■■• fortunes, and the makers of some of those for- 
tunes will be considered in the chapter dealing with 
" men of affairs "; but many who have been grouped 
under that heading might well have been included 
under this, since, for the most part, the richest men 
have been the freest in their benefactions. It is 
worth noting that the recorded public gifts in this 
country during 1909 amounted to $135,000,000. 
The giving of money is, of course, only one kind of 
benefaction, and not the highest kind, which is the 
giving of self; but the good which these gifts have 
rendered possible is beyond calculation. 

This kind of philanthropy is no new thing in the 
United States. It is almost as old as the country it- 
self. Indeed, few of the older institutions of learn- 
ing but had their origin in some such gift. One of the 
earliest of such philanthropists was Stephen Girard, 
whose life-story is unusually interesting and inspir- 
ing. The son of a sailor, and with little opportunity 
for gaining an education, he shipped as cabin-boy, 
while still a mere child, and after some years of rough 
knocking around, rose to the position of mate, and 

231 



A Guide to Biography 

finally to a part ownership in the vessel. In 1Y69, at 
the age of nineteen, he established himself in the ship 
business in Philadelphia, but the opening of the Rev- 
olution put an end to that business. Not until the 
close of the war was he able to re-embark in it. The 
foundation of his fortune was soon laid by his integ- 
rity and enterprise, but it was largely augmented in 
a most peculiar manner. 

Two of his vessels happened to be in one of the 
ports of Hayti, when a slave insurrection broke out 
there, and a number of the planters hastily removed 
their treasure to his vessels for safe-keeping. That 
night, the insurrection reached its height, and the 
planters, together with their families, were massa- 
cred. Heirs to a portion of the treasure were discov- 
ered by Mr. Girard, but he found himself possessed 
of about $50,000 to which no heirs could be 
traced. 

With remarkable foresight, Mr. Girard invested 
largely in the shares of the old Bank of the United 
States, and in 1812, purchased its building and suc- 
ceeded to much of its business. He was the financial 
mainstay of the government during the second war 
with England — in fact, it was he who made the finan- 
cing of the war possible. And yet he was, to all out- 
ward appearances, a singularly repulsive and hard- 
fisted old miser. In early youth, an unfortunate ac- 
cident had caused the loss of one eye, and his other 
gradually failed him until he was quite blind ; he was 
also partially deaf, and was sour, crabbed and un- 
approachable. In small matters he was a miser, ready 

232 




GIRARD 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

to avoid paying a just claim if he could in any way do 
so, living in a miserable fashion and refusing charity 
to every one, no matter how deserving. He was for- 
bidding in appearance, and drove daily to and from 
his farm outside of Philadelphia in a shabby old 
carriage drawn by a single horse. No visitor was ever 
welcomed at that farm, where its owner dragged out 
a penurious existence. 

Yet in public matters no one could have been more 
open-handed, and when, after his death in 1831, his 
will was opened, it created a shock of surprise, for 
practically his whole fortune of $9,000,000 had been 
bequeathed for charitable purposes. Large sums were 
given to provide fuel for the poor in winter, for dis- 
tressed ship-masters, for the blind, the deaf and dumb, 
and for the public schools. Half a million was given 
Philadelphia for the improvement of her streets and 
public buildings; but his principal bequest was one 
of $2,000,000, besides real estate, and the residue of 
his property, for the establishment at Philadelphia of 
a college for orphans. In 1848, Girard College was 
opened, and has since then continued its great work, 
educating as many orphans as the endowment can 
support. So Girard atoned after his death, for the 
mistakes of his life. 

Almost equally singular was the life of the founder 
of that splendid government enterprise, the Smithson- 
ian Institution — perhaps the most important scien- 
tific center in the world. James Smithson was in no 
sense an American. Indeed, so far as known, he never 
even visited the United States, and yet no account of 

233 



A Guide to Biography 

American pliilanthropy would be complete without 
him. He was born in France in 1765, and was the 
illegitimate son of Hugh Smithson, afterwards Duke 
of Northumberland. He went by his mother's name 
for the first forty years of his life, being known as 
James Macie, until, in 1802, he assumed his father's 
name. 

Born under this shadow, the boy soon developed 
unusual qualities, graduated from Oxford, with high 
honors in chemistry and mineralogy, and added 
greatly to his reputation by a series of scientific papers 
of great importance. A large portion of his life was 
passed in Europe, where he associated with the great- 
est scientists of the day, honored by all of them. He 
died at Genoa at the age of sixty-four, and, when his 
will was opened, it was seen how the circumstances of 
his birth had weighed upon him. For, " in order that 
his name might live in the memory of man when the 
titles of the Northumberlands are extinct and forgot- 
ten," he bequeathed his whole fortune " to the United 
States of America, to found at Washington, under the 
name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establish- 
ment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge 
among men." After a suit in chancery, the bequest 
was paid over to the United States government, 
amounting to over half a million dollars. In 1846, 
the Smithsonian Institution was formally established, 
its first secretary being Joseph Henry, of whose great 
work there we have already spoken. It has increased 
in scope and usefulness year by year, and stands to- 
day without a counterpart in any country. 

234 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

Peter Cooper also left a portion of his wealth for 
" the diffusion of knowledge among men," but a dif- 
ferent sort of knowledge — the knowledge that would 
help a man or woman to earn a living. His own ca- 
reer had shown him how necessary such knowledge is. 
His father was a hatter bj trade, and the boy's earli- 
est recollection was of his being employed to pull hair 
out of rabbit-skins, his head just reaching above the 
table. But the hat business was unprofitable, and the 
elder Cooper tried a number of businesses, brewing, 
brick-making, what not, the boy being required to 
take part in each of them, so that lie had no time for 
schooling, and had to pick up such odds and ends 
of knowledge as he could. Finally, in 1808, at the 
age of seventeen, he was apprenticed to a carriage- 
maker, and remained with him until he was of age. 

After that, the young man himself tried various 
occupations without great success, until the establish- 
ment of a glue factory began to bring him large re- 
turns. By the beginning of 1828, he was able to pur- 
chase three thousand acres of land within the city of 
Baltimore and to establish the Canton iron-works, 
which was the first of his great enterprises tending to- 
ward the development of the iron industry in the 
United States. Other plants were built or purchased, 
rolling mills and blast furnaces established, and a 
great impetus given to this branch of manufacture. 
He practically financed the Atlantic Cable Company, 
in the face of ridicule, and made the cable possible, 
and he saved the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad from 
bankruptcy by designing and building a locomotive 

235 



A Guide to Biography 

— the first ever built in this country — especially 
adapted to the uneven country over which the track 
was laid. 

The fortune thus acquired he devoted to a well- 
considered and practical plan of philanthropy. His 
career had shown him the great value of a trade to 
any man or woman. The schools taught every kind 
of knowledge except that which would enable a man 
to earn a living with his hands, which seemed to him 
the most important of all. He determined to do what 
he could remedy this defect, and in 1854, secured 
a block of land in l^ew York City, at the junction of 
Third and Fourth Avenues, where, shortly after- 
wards, the cornerstone was laid of " The Cooper 
Union for the Advancement of Science and Art." It 
was completed five years later, and handed over to six 
trustees; a scheme of education was devised and spe- 
cial emphasis was laid upon " instruction in branches 
of knowledge by which men and women earn their 
daily bread; in laws of health and improvement of 
the sanitary condition of families as well as individ- 
uals ; in social and political science, whereby communi- 
ties and nations advance in virtue, wealth and power ; 
and finally in matters which affect the eye, the ear, 
and the imagination, and furnish a basis for recrea- 
tion to the working classes." Free courses of lectures 
were established, a free reading room, and free in- 
struction was given in various branches of the useful 
arts. From that day to this. Cooper Union has been 
an ever-growing force for progress in the life of the 
great city; it has been a pioneer in the work of indus- 

236 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

trial education, which has, of recent years, reached 
such great proportions. 

Peter Cooper lived to see the institution which he 
had founded realize at least some of his hopes for it. 
He himself lived a most active life, taking a promi- 
nent part in many movements looking to the reform of 
national or civic abuses. In 1876, he was nominated 
by the national independent party as their candidate 
for president and received nearly a hundred thousand 
votes. Since his death, the institution which he 
founded has grown steadily in importance ; other be- 
quesits have been added to his, and Cooper Union has 
come to stand, in a way, for civic righteousness. 

The year 1795 saw the birth of two children who 
w^ere destined to do a great work for their country — 
George Peabody and Johns Hopkins. Both were the 
sons of poor parents, with little opportunity for 
achieving the sort of learning which is taught in 
schools ; but both, by hard experience with the world, 
gained another sort of learning which is often of 
more practical value. At the age of eleven, George 
Peabody was forced to begin to earn his own living, 
and a place was found for him in a grocery store. 
His habits were good, he did his work well, and final- 
ly, at the age of nineteen, was offered a partnership 
by another merchant, who had noticed and admired 
his energy and enthusiasm. The business increased, 
branch houses were established, and at the age of 
thirty-five, George Peabody found himself at the head 
of a great business, his elder partner having retired. 
He decided to make London his place of residence, 

237 



A Guide to Biography 

and became a sort of guardian angel for Americans 
visiting the great English capital. He had never mar- 
ried, and it seemed almost as if the whole world were 
his family. His constant thought was of how he could 
elevate humanity, and he was not long in putting 
some of his plans into effect. 

In 1852, his native town of Danvers, Massachu- 
setts, celebrated her centennial, and her most distin- 
guished citizen was, of course, invited to be present. 
He was too busy to attend, but sent a sealed envelope 
to be opened on the day of the celebration. Tlie seal 
was broken at the dinner with which the celebration 
closed, and the envelope was found to contain two 
slips of paper. On one was written this toast, " Edu- 
cation — a debt due from present to future genera- 
tions." The other was a check for twenty thousand 
dollars, afterwards increased to two hundred and 
fifty thousand, for the purpose of founding an Insti- 
tute, with a free library and free course of lectures. 
Four years later, the Peabody Institute was dedi- 
cated, its founder being in attendance. Soon after- 
wards, he decided to build a similar Institute at Bal- 
timore, only on a more elaborate scale, as befitting 
the greater city, and gave a million dollars for the 
purpose. It was opened in 1869, twenty thousand 
school children gathering to meet the donor and 
forming a guard of honor for him. 

Two other great gifts marked his life — the sum of 
three million dollars for the erection of model tene- 
ments for the London poor, and a like sum for the 
education of the American negro. When, in 1869 

238 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

the end came in London, a great funeral was held at 
Westminster Abbey, and the Queen of England sent 
her noblest man-of-war to bear in state across the At- 
lantic the body of " her friend," the poor boy of 
Danvers. 

It is a strange coincidence that Baltimore, which 
had profited so greatly from George Peabody's phi- 
lanthropy, should also be the object of that of Johns 
Hopkins. The latter was of Quaker stock, was raised 
on a farm, and at the age of seventeen became a clerk 
in his uncle's grocery store at Baltimore. He soon 
accumulated enough capital to go into business for 
himself, first as a grocer, then as a banker, and fi- 
nally as one of the backers of the Baltimore & Ohio 
Railway. In 1873, he gave property valued at four 
and a half millions to found in the city of Baltimore 
a hospital, which, by its charter, is free to all, re- 
gardless of race or color; and three and a half 
millions for the endowment of Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity, which, opened in 1876, has grown to be one 
of the most famous schools of law, medicine and 
science in the country. 

Another Quaker, Ezra Cornell, is also associated 
wnth the name of a great university. Reared among 
the hills of western New York, helping his father on 
his farm and in his little pottery, the boy soon devel- 
oped considerable mechanical genius, and at the age 
of seventeen, with the help of only a younger brother, 
he built a new home for the family, a two-story frame 
dwelling, the largest and best in the neighborhood. 
He soon struck out into the world, engaged in busi- 

239 



A Guide to Biography 

nesses of various kinds with varying success, but it 
was not until he was thirty-six years old that he found 
his vocation. 

It was at that time he became associated with S. F. 
B. Morse, who engaged him to superintend the erec- 
tion of the first line of telegraph between Washington 
and Baltimore. Thereafter he devoted himself en- 
tirely to the development of the new invention; suc- 
ceeded, after many rebuffs and disappointments, in 
organizing a company to erect a line from New York 
to Washington, and superintended its construction. 
It was the first of many, afterwards consolidated into 
the Western Union Telegraph Company, which, for 
many years, held a monopoly of the telegraph busi- 
ness of the country, and which made Ezra Cornell a 
millionaire. He himself was well advanced in years, 
and finally retired from active life, buying a great 
estate near Ithaca, New York, where he lived quietly, 
devising a method for the best disposition of his great 
fortune. 

He at last decided to found an institution " where 
any person can find instruction in any study." Work 
was begun at once, and in 18G8, Cornell College was 
formally opened, over four hundred students en- 
tering the first year. The founder's gifts to this in- 
stitution aggregated over three millions. M{*ny other 
bequests followed, which have made Cornell one of 
the most liberally-endowed colleges in the country. 
Froude, the great English historian, visited it on one 
occasion, and afterwards said : 

" There is something I admire even more than the 
240 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

imiversity, and that is the quiet, unpretending man 
bj whom it was founded. We have had such men in 
old times, and there are men in England who make 
great fortunes and who make claim to great munifi- 
cence; but who manifest their greatness in buying 
great estates and building castles for the founding 
of peerages to be handed down from father to son. 
Mr. Cornell has sought for immortality, and the per- 
petuity of his name among the people of a free na- 
tion. There stands his great university, built upon 
a rock, to endure while the American nation en- 
dures." 

The next great benefaction we have to record is, 
in some respects, unique. John Fox Slater was born 
in Slatersville, Rhode Island, in 1815. He was the 
son of Samuel Slater, proprietor of the greatest cot- 
ton-mills in New England, and he naturally suc- 
ceeded to the business upon his father's death. The 
business prospered, receiving a great impetus from 
the invention of the cotton-gin, and Slater's wealth 
increased rapidly. 

He had, on more than one occasion, visited the 
south and seen the negroes at work in the cotton fields. 
As time went on, the idea grew in his mind that he 
should do something for these poor laborers to whom, 
indirectly, his own fortune was due, and in 1882, he 
set aside the sum of one million dollars for the pur- 
pose of " uplifting the lately emancipated population 
of the Southern States, and their posterity." For 
this gift he received the thanks of Congress. No part 
of the gift is spent for grounds or buildings, but the 

241 



A Guide to Biography 

whole income is spent in assisting negroes in indus- 
trial education and in preparing them to be the teach- 
ers of their own race. By the extraordinary ability of 
the fund's treasurer, it has been increased to a million 
and a half, although half a million has been exj)ended 
along the lines contemplated by the donor. This, 
with the Peabody fund, comprises a powerful agency 
in working out the difficult problem of negro educa- 
tion. 

The fortunes of such men as Peabody and Cornell 
and Hopkins and Peter Cooper seem small enough 
to-day when compared with the gigantic aggregations 
of money which a few men have succeeded in piling 
up. Not all of them, by any means, devote their 
wealth to philanthropy. Here, as in England, there 
are men concerned only with the idea of building up 
a family and a great estate ; but there are a few who 
have labored as faithfully to use their wealth wisely 
as they did to accumulate it. 

First of them is Leland Stanford, born in the val- 
ley of the Mohawk, studying law, and moving to 
Wisconsin to practise it, but losing his law library 
and all his property by fire, and finally joining the 
rush to the newly-discovered California gold-fields, 
where he arrived in 1852, being at that time twenty- 
eight years old. After some experience in the mines, 
he decided that there were surer ways of getting gold 
than digging for it, and set up a mercantile business 
in San Francisco, which grew rapidly in importance 
and proved the foundation of a vast fortune. He was 

242 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

the first president of the Central Pacific Railroad, 
and was in charge of its construction over the moun- 
tains, driving the last spike at Promontory Point, 
Utah, on the tenth of May, 1869. He was prominent 
in the politics of state and nation, being elected to the 
United States Senate in 1885. 

It is not by his public life, however, that he will 
be remembered, for he did nothing there that was in 
any way memorable, but by his gift of twenty million 
dollars to found a great university at Palo Alto, Cali- 
fornia, in memory of his only son. On May 14, 1887, 
the cornerstone of this great institution was laid, and 
the university was formally opened in 1891. The 
idea of its founder was that it should teach not only 
the studies usually taught in college, but also other 
practical branches of education, such as telegraphy, 
type-setting, type-writing, book-keeping, and farm- 
ing. This it has done, and so rapid has been its 
growth, that it now has over seventeen hundred stu- 
dents enrolled. 

After Senator Stanford's death in 1893, the uni- 
versity was further endowed by his widow, Jane La- 
throp Stanford, so that the present productive funds 
of the university, after all of the buildings have been 
paid for, amount to nearly twenty-five million dol- 
lars. 

The second of the great givers of recent years is 
John Davison Rockefeller, whose name is synony- 
mous with the greatest natural monopoly of modern 
times, the Standard Oil Company. His rise from 
clerk in a grocery store to one of the greatest capital- 

243 



A Guide to BiogTaphv 

ists in the historv of the world is an interesting one. 
as well as an important one in the commercial history 
of America. Born at Eichford, Xew York, in 1839, 
his parents moved to Cleveland, Ohio, when he was a 
hoy of fourteen, and such education as he had was 
secured in the Cleveland public schools. He soon 
left school for business, getting emplo^Tnent first as 
clerk in a commission house, and at nineteen being 
junior partner in the firm of Clark & Ixockcfcller, 
commission merchants. 

At that time the petroleum fields of Pennsylvania 
were just beginning to be developed, and young Kock- 
efeller's attention was soon attracted to them. He 
seems to have been one of the first to realize the vast 
possibilities of the oil business, and in 1865, he and 
his brother "William built at Cleveland a refinery 
which they called the Standard Oil Works. They 
had little money, but unlimited nerve, and very soon 
began the work of consolidation, which culminated 
in the formation of the Standard Oil Trust in 1882. 
They were able to kill competition largely by securing 
from the railroads lower shipping rates than any com- 
petitor, in some cases going so far as to got a rebate 
on all oil shipped by competitors. That is, if a rail- 
road charged the Standard Oil Company one dollar 
to carry its oil between two points and charged a com- 
petitor a dollar and a quarter for the same service, 
that extra quarter went, not into the coffers of the 
railroad, but into the coffers of the Standard Oil 
Company. Such methods of business have since been 
made illegal, and the Standard is compelled to do 

244 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

business on the same basis as its competitors, but its 
vast resources and occupancy of the field give it an 
advantage which nothing can counteract. 

The operations of the Standard Oil Company na- 
turally piled up a great fortune for John D. Rocke- 
feller — how great cannot even be estimated. Not 
until comparatively recent years, did he turn his 
attention from making iiioney to sptmding it, but 
when he did, it was in a royal fashion. Ten mil- 
lion dollars were given to the University of Chi- 
cago, which opened its doors in 1892, and now has 
an enrollment of over five thousand students ; ten 
million more were given to the General Education 
Board, organized in 1903, for the purpose of promot- 
ing education in the United States, without distinc- 
tion of race, sex, or creed, and especially to promote 
and systematize various forms of educational benefi- 
cence ; a million was given to Yale ; the great Rocke- 
feller Institute for Medical Research was founded at 
New York and liberally endowed ; and Mr. Rocke- 
feller's total benefactions ju-obably exceed a total of 
thirty millions. This will soon be greatly increased, 
for he has just asked Congress to charter an institu- 
tion to be known as the Rockefeller Foundation, 
which he will endow on an enormous scale to carry 
out various plans of charity, through centuries to 
come. 

He seems recently to have experienced a change of 
heart, too, toward the public. During his early years, 
he gained a re])utation for coldness and reserve, which 
made him probably the best-hated mnu in the United 

245 



A Guide to Biography 

States. Then, suddenly, he changed about. Instead 
of refusing liimself to reporters, he welcomed them ; 
he seemed glad to talk, anxious to show the public 
that he was by no means such a monster as he was 
painted; and he has even, quite recently, written his 
life story and given it to a great magazine for publi- 
cation. Seldom before has any public man shown such 
a sudden and complete change of heart. He still re- 
mains, in a sense, an enigma, for it seems possible 
that the smiling face he has lately turned to the world 
conceals the real man more effectively than the frown- 
ing countenance he wore in former years. 

As the dramatist saves his finest effect for the fall 
of the curtain, so we have saved for the last the most 
remarkable giver in history — Andrew Carnegie, 
whose total benefactions amount to at least one hun- 
dred millions of dollars. A sum so stupendous would 
bankrupt many a nation, yet Mr. Carnegie is so far 
from bankrupt that his gifts show no sign of diminu- 
tion. I'he story of how, starting out as a poor boy, 
on the lowest round of the ladder, he acquired this 
immense fortune, is a striking one. 

Andrew Carnegie was born in Scotland in 1835. 
His father was a weaver, at one time fairly well-to- 
do, for he owned four hand looms ; but the introduc- 
tion of steam ruined hand-loom weaving, and after 
a long struggle, ending in hardship and poverty, the 
looms were sold at a sacrifice and tlie family set sail 
for America. Mrs. Carnegie happened to have two 
sisters living at Pittsburgh, and there the family 
settled — by one of those curious chances of fate, the 

246 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

very place in all the world best suited to the develop- 
ment of young Andrew Carnegie's peculiar genius. 

At the age of twelve years, he became a wage- 
earner, his first position being that of bobbin-boy 
in a cotton mill at Alleghany City, where his salary 
was $1.20 a week. Pretty soon he was set to firing 
a small engine in the cellar of the mill, but he did 
not like this work, and finally secured a position as 
messenger boy in the office of the Atlantic & Ohio 
Telegraph Company, at Pittsburgh. One night, at 
the end of the month, he did not receive his pay with 
the rest of the boys, but was told to wait till the 
others had left the room. He thought that dismissal 
was coming, and wondered how he could ever go 
home and tell his father and mother ! But he found 
that he was to be given an increase in salary, from 
$11.25 to $13.50 a month. 

" I ran all the way home," said Mr. Carnegie, in 
telling of the incident, long afterAvards. " Talk 
about your millionaires ! All the millions I've made 
combined, never gave me the happiness of that rise 
of $2.25 a month. Arrived at the cottage where we 
lived, I handed my mother the usual $11.25, and 
that night in bed told brother Tom the great secret. 
The next morning, Sunday, we were all sitting at 
the breakfast table, and I said : ' Mother, I have 
something else for you,' and then I gave her the 
$2.25, and told her how I got it. Father and she 
were delighted to hear of my good fortune, but, 
motherlike, she said I deserved it, and then came 
tears of joy." 

24Y 



A Guide to Biography 

It was at the dinner given, in 1907, in his honor 
as " Father of the Corps," by the surviving mem- 
bers of the United States Military Telegraph Corps 
of the Civil War, that Mr. Carnegie spoke these 
words, and he continued as follows: 

" Comrades, I was born in poverty, and would not 
exchange its sacred memories with the richest mil- 
lionaire's son who ever breathed. What does he 
know about mother or father ? They are mere names 
to him. Give me the life of the boy whose mother is 
nurse, seamstress, washerwoman, cook, teacher, 
angel and saint, all in one, and whose father is guide, 
exemplar, and friend. These are the boys who are 
born to the best fortune. Some men think that 
poverty is a dreadful burden, and that wealth leads 
to happiness. They have lived only one side; they 
imagine the other. I have lived both, and I know 
there is very little in wealth that can add to human 
happiness, beyond the small comforts of life. Mil- 
lionaires who laugh are rare. My experience is that 
wealth is apt to take the smiles away." 

But we are getting ahead of our story. That 
small increase in salary meant a good deal to the 
little family, whose father was working from dawn to 
dark in the cotton-mill, and whose mother was con- 
tributing what she could to the family earrings by 
binding shoes in the intervals of housework. Mean- 
time the superintendent of the company for which 
the boy was working happened to meet him while 
visiting the Pittsburgh office, and it was discovered 
that both of them had been born near the same town 

248 



Pliilantliropists and Reformers 

in Scotland. The fact may have had something to 
do with the boy's subsequent promotion, and it is 
worth noting that forty years later, he was able to 
secure for his old employer the United States con- 
sulship to the town of their birth. But for the time 
being, he was busy with his work as messenger-boy. 
He soon learned the Morse alphabet and practised 
making the signals early in the morning before the 
operators arrived. He was soon able to send and 
receive messages by means of the Morse register — 
a steel pen which embossed the dots and dashes of the 
message on a narrow strip of paper. But young Car- 
negie soon progressed a step beyond this, and was 
soon able to read the messages by sound, without 
need of the register. It was, of course, only a short 
time after that when he was regularly installed as 
operator. 

He was not to remain long in the telegraph busi- 
ness, however, for Thomas A. Scott, superintendent 
of the Pittsburgh division of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road, offered him a position at a salary of $35 a 
month. Carnegie promjitly accepted, and on Febru- 
ary 1, 1853, at the age of seventeen, entered the em- 
ploy of the road. His promotion was rapid, and he 
rose to be superintendent of the Pittsburgh division 
before the success of his other ventures caused him 
to resign from the service. These ventures were, in 
the first place, investment in the newly-developed 
oil-fields of Pennsylvania, which yielded a great prof- 
it, and afterwards the establishment of a steel roll- 
ing-mill, in the development of which he found his 

249 



A Guide to Biography 

true vocation, building up the most complete system 
of iron and steel industries ever controlled by an in- 
dividual. Some idea of the value of the business 
may be gained from the fact that, when the United 
States Steel Corporation Avas organized in 1901 to 
take over Mr. Carnegie's interests he received for 
them, first mortgage bonds to the amount of three 
hundred million dollars. 

It is this sum which he has been disposing of for 
years. Unlike most other philanthropists, he has 
not used his wealth to endow a great university, but 
has devoted it mainly to another branch of educa- 
tion, the establishment of free public libraries. He 
conceived the unique plan of offering a library build- 
ing, completely equipped, to any community which 
would agree to maintain it suitably, and, by the be- 
ginning of 1909, had, under this plan, given nearly 
fifty-two millions of dollars for the erection of 1858 
buildings, of which 1167 are in this country. Among 
his other great gifts was one of $12,000,000, for the 
founding at Washington of an institution " which 
shall, in the broadest and most liberal manner, en- 
courage investigation, research, and discovery, show 
the application of knowledge to the improvement of 
mankind, and provide siicli buildings, laboratories, 
books, and apparatus as may be needed." 

The sum of ten millions was given to the gi'eat 
Carnegie Institute, of Pittsburgh ; still another ten 
millions were given to Scottish universities, and 
still another for the purpose of providing pensions 
for college professors in the United States and Can- 

250 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

ada; and finally five millions for the establishment 
of a fund to be used for the benefit of the dependants 
of those losing their lives in heroic effort to save 
their fellow-men, or for the heroes themselves, if 
injured only. What great benefaction will next be 
announced cannot, of course, be foretold, but that 
some other announcement will some day be forth- 
coming can scarcely be doubted, since Mr. Carnegie 
has announced his ambition to die poor. 

Although born in Scotland and maintaining a 
great estate there, he is an American out-and-out. 
He proved his patriotism during the Civil War by 
serving as superintendent of military railways and 
government telegraph lines in the east; and has 
proved it more than once since by enlisting in the 
fight for civic betterment and good government. 
Thousands of benefactions stand to his credit, be- 
sides the great ones which have been mentioned 
above, and it is doubtful if in the history of the 
world there has ever been another man armed with 
such power and using it in such a way. 

We will end here the story of American benefac- 
tions, although scarcely the half of it has been told. 
During the last foi"ty years, not less than one hun- 
dred millions of dollars have been given to American 
colleges; nearly as much again has been given for 
the endo^vment of hospitals, sanitariums and infirm- 
aries ; vast sums have been given for other educa- 
tional or charitable purposes, so that, of the great 
fortunes which have been accumulated in this coun- 
try, at least three hundred millions have been re- 

251 



A Guide to Biography 

turned, in some form or other, to the people. And 
the end is not yet. Scientific philanthropy is as yet 
in its infancy. Just the other day, Mrs. Russell 
Sage set apart the sum of ten million dollars for a 
fund whose chief and almost sole purpose it is to 
obtain accurate information concerning social and 
economic conditions — in other words, to furnish the 
data upon which the scientific philanthropy of the 
future will be based. The disposition toward such 
employment of great fortunes, and away from the 
selfish piling-up of wealth is one of the most cheer- 
ing and promising developments of the new century 
in this great land of ours; the kings of finance are 
comiug to realize that, after all, wealth is useless un- 
less it is used for good, and the next half century 
will no doubt witness the establishment of philan- 
thropic enterprises on a scale hitherto unknown to 
history. 

We have already said that the highest form of 
philanthropy is not the giving of money, but the giv- 
ing of self, and we shall close this chapter with a 
brief consideration of the careers of a few of the 
many men and women who, in the course of Ameri- 
can history, have devoted their lives to the better- 
ment of humanity, either as ministers of the gospel 
or as laborers for some great reform. 

Among ministers, no name has been more widely 
known than that of Beecher — first, Lyman Beecher, 
and afterwards his brilliant son, Henry Ward 
Beecher. Lyman Beecher was born in New Haven, 

252 




BEECHER 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

Connecticut, in 1775, the son of a blacksmith, and 
his youth was spent between blacksmithing and farm- 
ing. His love of books soon manifested itself, how- 
ever, and means were found to prepare him for 
Yale, where he graduated at the age of twenty-two. 
A further year of study enabled him to enter the 
ministry. For sixteen years, he was pastor of the 
Congregational church at Litchfield, Connecticut, 
and soon took rank as the leading clergyman of his 
denomination. His eloquence, zeal and courage won 
a wide reputation, and in 1832, he was offered the 
presidency of the newly-organized Lane seminary, 
at Cincinnati. This place he held for twenty years, 
and his name was continued as president in the 
seminary catalogue, until his death. 

Soon after he assumed this position, the slavery 
question began to assume the acute phase which 
ended in the Civil War. Mr. Beecher was, of course, 
an Abolitionist, and for a time lived in a turmoil, 
for many of the seminary students were from the 
south, while Cincinnati itself was so near the border- 
line that there was a great pro-slavery sentiment 
there. But during Mr. Beecher's absence, his trus- 
tees tried to allay excitement and, in a way, carry 
water on both shoulders, by forbidding all further 
discussion of slavery in the seminary, and succeeded 
in nearly wrecking the institution, for the students 
withdrew in a body, and while a few were persuaded 
to return, the great majority refused to do so and 
laid the foundation of Oberlin College. For seven- 
teen years, Mr. Beecher labored to restore the semi- 

253 



A Guide to Biography 

nary's prosperity, but finally abandoned the task in 
despair. He resigned the presidency in 1852, in- 
tending to devote his remaining years to the revision 
and publication of his works, but a paralytic stroke 
put an end to his active career. 

Mr. Beecher's vigor of mind and body were im- 
parted in a remarkable degree to his children, of 
whom he had thirteen. Of Harriet Beecher Stowe 
we have already spoken, but by far the most famous 
of them was Henry Ward Beecher. Born in 1813, 
and renouncing an early desire for a sea-faring life 
in favor of the ministry, he secured his first charge 
in 1837, and ten years later entered upon the pas- 
torate of Pl^^mouth church, in Brooklyn, where his 
chief fame was won. The church, one of the largest 
in the country, soon became inadequate to hold the 
crowds which flocked to hear his brilliant preaching. 
As a lecturer and platform orator he soon came to 
be in such demand that he was at last compelled to 
decline all such engagements. He took an active 
part in politics, holding that Christianity was not a 
series of dogmas, but a rule of everyday life, and 
did not hesitate to attack the abuses of the day from 
the pulpit. He was as facile with the pen as with 
the tongue, and his publications were many and im- 
portant. All in all, he was one of the most influen- 
tial and picturesque figures that has ever occupied 
an American pulpit. 

Lyman Beecher was at all times a doughty antag- 
onist, and in 1826 he had been called to Boston to 
take up the cudgels against the so-called Unitarian 

254 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

movement which had developed there, under the 
leadership of William Ellery Channing. For six 
years and a half, he wielded the cudgels of contro- 
versy, but with no great effect, for Channing was a 
foeman in every sense his equal. Channing had 
graduated at Harvard in 1798, a small man of an 
almost feminine sensibility, with a singular capacity 
for winning devoted attachment from all with whom 
he came in contact. For two years, he served as 
tutor in a family at Richmond, Virginia, where he 
acquired an abhorrence of slavery that lasted through 
life. Upon his return north, he began the study of 
theology at Cambridge, and in 1803, became pastor 
of a church in Boston, where he soon attracted atten- 
tion by sermons of a rare " fervor, solemnity, and 
beauty." He was from the first identified with the 
movement of thought, which came to be known as 
Unitarian, and gave to the body so-called a conscious- 
ness of its position and a clear statement of its 
convictions with his sermon delivered at Baltimore, 
in 1819, on the occasion of the ordination of Jared 
Sparks. For the fifteen years succeeding, Chan- 
ning was best kno^vn to the public as the leader of 
the Unitarian movement, and his sermons delivered 
during that period constitute the best body of prac- 
tical divinity which that movement has produced. ' 
In later years, he was identified with many philan- 
thropical and reform movements, and was one of the 
pillars of the anti-slavery cause, though never adopt- 
ing the extreme opinions of the abolitionists. Of his 
rare quality and power as a pulpit orator many tra- 

255 



A Guide to Biography 

ditions remain, and his death at the age of sixtj-two 
removed a great power for righteousness. 

Even to give a list of the men and women who 
have sacrificed their lives in the attempt to carry the 
gospel of Christianity to heathen nations is beyond 
the limits of a book like this, but at least mention 
can be made of two of the earliest, Adoniram Judson 
and his wife, whose experiences form one of tlie most 
thrilling chapters in missionary history. 

Adoniram Judson was born in Maiden, Massachu- 
setts, in 1788, and after graduating at Brown Uni- 
versity, and taking a special course at Andover Theo- 
logical seminary, became deeply interested in foreign 
missions, and in 1810, determined to go to Burmah. 
Securing the support of the London Missionary So- 
ciety, he sailed for Asia on the nineteenth of Febru- 
ary, 1812. Two weeks before, he had married Ann 
Haseltine, who consented to share his work, and who 
sailed with him. On that long voyage, they had am- 
ple time to discuss and consider the various dogmas 
of their faith, and they became convinced that the 
baptism of the Kew Testament was immersion, and 
in accordance with this view, both of them were bap- 
tized by immersion upon reaching Calcutta. But 
tliis change of faith cut them off from the body which 
had sent them to India, and it was not imtil 1814 
that the Baptists of America took the two mission- 
aries under their care. 

Meanwhile, Dr. Judson mastered the Burmese 
language and began his public preaching. Before 
long, he baptized his first convert, and pushed for- 

256 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

ward the work with renewed zeal, translating the 
gospels into Burmese, publishing tracts in that lan- 
guage, and undertaking the most perilous journeys. 
The Burmese government had never been friendly, 
and in 1824, seized the missionaries and threw 
them into prison. They were confined in the " death 
hole," reeking with foul air, without light, and were 
loaded with fetters. Just enough food was given 
them to keep them alive, and at last, stripped almost 
naked, they were driven like cattle under the 
burning sun, to another prison, where it was in- 
tended to burn them alive. They were saved by the 
intercession of Sir Archibald Campbell, but Mrs. 
Judson's health had been wrecked by the terrible ex- 
perience. She never recovered, dying two years 
later. Undaunted by difficulties. Dr. Judson con- 
tinued his work, completing his translation of the 
Bible, travelling over India, compiling a Burmese 
grammar and dictionary, but his labors at last un- 
dermined even his constitution and he died at sea in 
1850, while on his way to the Isle of France. 

Turn we now to Lucretia Mott, one of the most 
extraordinary women who ever lived in America. 
Born in ISTantucket in 1793, the daughter of a sea- 
captain named Thomas Coffin, she was raised in the 
strict Quaker faith, to which her parents belonged. 
She began teaching while still a girl, and at the age 
of eighteen, married a fellow teacher, James Mott. 
It was not long after that, that she developed the 
" gift " of speaking at the Quaker meetings, simply, 
earnestly and eloquently. The Quakers had always 

257 



A Guide to Biography 

opposed slavery and Lucretia Mott was soon work- 
ing heart and soul against it. When the American 
Anti-Slavery Society was organized in 1833, she was 
one of four women who joined it, and she proceeded 
immediately to organize the Female Anti-Slavery 
Society, the first organization of women in America 
working for a political purpose. Years of abuse fol- 
lowed, for in those days anti-slavery lecturers were 
tarred and feathered, their homes burned, and many 
other indignities heaped upon them. Throughout all 
this, Mrs. Mott never lost her serenity, and never 
suffered bodily injury. On one occasion, the annual 
meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society, in New York, 
was broken up by a mob, and some of the speakers 
were roughly handled. Perceiving that some of the 
women were badly frightened, Mrs. Mott asked her 
escort to look after them. 

" But who will take care of you ? " he asked. 

" This man will," she said, and smilingly laid her 
hand upon the arm of one of the leaders of the mob. 
" He will see me safe through." 

The rioter stared down at her for a moment, his 
conflicting thoughts betraying themselves upon his 
countenance, then his better nature triumphed and 
he led her respectfully to a place of safety. 

She seems to have possessed the power of charm- 
ing any audience, and carried her anti-slavery cam- 
paign even into Kentucky, where she commanded re- 
spectful attention. She was one of the first to take 
up the question of woman suffrage, and in 1848, with 
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a few others, called the 

258 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

first Woman's Suffrage Convention ever held in this 
coimtry. For fifty years she continued her public 
vi'ork, until she grew to be one of the best known 
and best loved women in the country. She lived to 
see the slave freed, and when she died, a great con- 
course followed her body silently to the grave. As 
they stood there with bowed heads, a low voice asked, 
" Will no one say anything ? " 

" Who can speak ? " another voice responded, 
" The preacher is dead." 

In this day of pitying and enlightened treatment 
of the insane, it is difficult to realize the barbarities 
which they were called upon to endure a century ago. 
They were regarded almost as wild beasts, were kept 
chained in foul and loathsome places, fed with 
mouldy bread, filthy water, and allowed to die the 
most miserable death. For everyone used to believe 
that insanity was a mark of God's displeasure, and 
the outcast from His heart became equally an out- 
cast from the hearts of men. The insane were re- 
garded with fear and loathing, and it was not until 
the beginning of the nineteenth century that such 
men as Dr. Channing began to insist on the presence 
in human nature, even in its most degraded condi- 
tion, of grains of good. 

It was from Dr. Channing that Dorothea Lynde 
Dix drank in this theory with passionate faith, and 
proceeded at once to convert it into action. She 
Avas governess of Dr. Channing's children, and had 
long been interested in bettering the condition of 

259 



A Guide to Biography 

convicts; but now her attention was turned to tlie 
insane and she proceeded at once to master the whole 
question of insanity, its origin, its development, and 
its treatment, so far as it was then known. Enlist- 
ing the aid of a number of broad-minded men, among 
them Charles Sumner, she went to work. In one 
prison, she found two insane women, each confined 
in a small cage of planks ; others were locked in clos- 
ets, cellars, and stalls; some of them were naked, 
some were chained, some were regularly beaten and 
scourged. With all her data at hand, she addressed 
a memorial to the Massachusetts legislature, setting 
forth, in page after page, the details of these almost 
incredible horrors, which she herself had witnessed. 
It exploded like a bombshell, for it was a terrific 
arraignment of the whole state. Her statements were 
denounced as untrue and slanderous, but a little in- 
vestigation proved their truth, and with such men 
behind her as Channing, Horace ]\Iann, and Samuel 
G. Howe, it was soon apparent that something would 
be done. The obstructions and delays of politicians 
were swept away before a steadily rising tide of pub- 
lic indignation, and a large appropriation was made 
by the legislature to provide proper quarters and prop- 
er treatment for insane persons. So Miss Dix won 
her first great victory, the forerunner of similar ones 
in almost every state in the union; for she travelled 
from state to state making the same investigations 
she had in Massachusetts, arousing public opinion, 
and compelling legislature after legislature to make 
adequate provision for the insane. The vastness of 

260 



Pliilantliropists and Reformers 

this campaign which Miss Dix phmned deliberately 
and which she carried through until she had visited 
every state east of the Rocky Mountains, gives evi- 
dence to her extraordinary character. During the 
Civil War, she was superintendent of hospital 
nurses, having the entire control of their appoint- 
ment and assignment. But the care of the insane 
was her life work. She resumed it at the close of 
the war, and carried it forward until her death. 

We have already referred more than once, in the 
course of these chapters, to the anti-slavery agitation 
which ended in the Civil War. During the second 
quarter of the nineteenth century, it was the one 
gTeat political question in America, upon which men 
were compelled to take one side or the other. From 
the first, there existed in the north a band of aboli- 
tionists — of men, in other words, who believed that 
the only solution of the slavery question was to put 
an end to that institution at once and forever. Of 
the j^ersecutions which were visited on the abolition- 
ists we have spoken when telling the story of Lu- 
cretia Mott. Social ostracism was the least of them. 

Perhaps no one person in America did more to 
crystalize public sentiment against slavery than 
Lydia Maria Child. An author at the age of seven- 
teen, and writing continuously until her death, com- 
ing early under the influence of William Lloyd Gar- 
rison, that great leader of the abolitionists, it was 
inevitable that she should employ her pen to assist 
the cause. In 1833 appeared her " Appeal for that 

261 



A Guide to Biography 

class of Americans called Africans," the first anti- 
slavery work printed in America in book form, ante- 
dating Mrs. Stowe's " Uncle Tom's Cabin " by nine- 
teen years. It attracted wide attention, enlisting the 
interest of such men as Dr. Channing, who walked 
from Boston to Roxbury to thank the author. But it 
was not without its penalties, for society closed its 
doors to Mrs. Child, many of her friends deserted 
her, and she was made the subject of much cruel 
comment. However, she became more and more in- 
terested in the anti-slavery crusade, edited the " Na- 
tional Anti-Slavery Standard," and wrote pamphlet 
after pamj)hlet. When John Brown was taken pris- 
oner, she w^rote him a letter of sympathy, which drew 
forth a courteous rebuke from Governor Wise, of 
Virginia, and a letter from the wife of Senator 
Mason, the author of the fugitive slave law, threat- 
ening her with future damnation. These letters were 
published and had a circulation of three hundred 
thousand copies. Wendell Phillips paid an eloquent 
tribute to her character and influence, at her fu- 
neral: " She was the kind of woman," he said, " one 
would choose to represent woman's entrance into 
broader life. Modest, womanly, sincere, solid, real, 
loyal, to be trusted, equal to affairs, and yet above 
them ; a companion with the password of every 
science and all literature." 

But however valuable the services of women like 
Lucretia Mott and Lydia Maria Child and Harriet 
Beeclier Stowe were in the figlit against slavery, the 
leader and high priest of the movement was William 

262 



Pliilantliropists and Reformers 

Lloyd Garrison. Born in Newburyport, Massachu- 
setts, in 1805, his was an unhappy boyhood, for his 
father, a sea-captain of intemperate and adventurous 
habits, left his family, soon after the boy was born, 
and was never seen again. The mother, a woman of 
unusual strength of character, went to work to earn 
a living for herself and her son, and it was to her 
careful training that his development was due. At 
fourteen years of age, he was apprenticed to a print- 
ery and served until he was of age. From the first 
he was remarkable for his firmness of moral prin- 
ciple and for an inflexible adherence to his convic- 
tions, no matter at what cost to himself. 

He soon showed, too, that he was destined for 
something more than a printer — a man who puts in 
print the ideas of others — that he had ideas of his 
own. His apprenticeship over, he started a paper of 
his own, but it was too reformatory for the taste of 
the day, and proved a failure. The most noteworthy 
thing in connection with it was the publication of 
some poems which had been sent in anonymously, 
and which Garrison, recognizing their merit, discov- 
ered to be the work of John G. Whittier, then en- 
tirely unknown. He visited the poet, encouraged 
him to keep on writing, and laid the foundation of a 
friendship which was broken only by death. 

Going to Boston after the failure of his paper, 
Garrison for a time edited the " National Philan- 
thropist," devoted to prohibition. This paper, too, 
was a failure, but at Boston Garrison met a man 
whose influence changed the whole course of his 

263 



A Guide to Biography 

life. His name was Benjamin Bundj. He was a 
Quaker, and at that time thirty-nine years of age. 
He was a saddler by trade, but for thirteen years 
had devoted his life to the anti-slavery cause, form- 
ing anti-slavery societies and editing a little monthly 
paper with a portentous name — " The Genius of 
Universal Emancipation." Bundy, whose home was 
in Baltimore, had journeyed to New England in the 
hope of interesting the clergy in the cause. In this 
he was bitterly disappointed, but he mightily stirred 
the heart of young Garrison, who soon became his 
ally and afterwards his partner in the conduct of 
the paper. His vigorous editing of it was soon a 
national sensation. He had seen with dismay the in- 
difference with which the north regarded the great 
issue — an indifference grounded on the belief that 
slavery was intrenched by the constitution and that 
all discussion of it was a menace to the Union. He 
realized that this indifference could be broken only 
by heroic measures, and he took the ground that since 
slavery was wrong, every slave had a right to in- 
stant freedom, and that immediate emancipation was 
the duty of the master and of the state. 

Baltimore was at that time one of the centres of 
the slave trade. There were slave-pens on the prin- 
cipal streets, and Garrison soon witnessed scenes 
which would have touched a less tender heart. In 
the first issue of his paper, he denounced this traffic 
as " domestic piracy," and named some men engaged 
in it, among them a vessel-owner of his own town of 
Newburyport. This man immediately had Garrison 

2G4 



Philanthropists and Keformers 

arrested for " gross and malicious libel," he was 
found guilty, fined fifty dollars and costs, and as 
there was no one to pay this, was thrown into 
prison. 

Garrison took his imprisonment calmly enough, 
but his old friend, John G. Whittier, was dee^jly 
distressed and appealed to Henry Clay to secure the 
release of the " guiltless prisoner." This Clay would 
probably have done, but he was anticipated by an- 
other friend of Garrison's, Arthur Tappan, of New 
York, who sent the money to pay the fine, and the 
young agitator was free again, after an imprison- 
ment of forty-nine days. He had not been idle 
while in prison, but had prepared a series of lec- 
tures on slavery, which he proceeded at once to de- 
liver. Then, on the first day of January, 1831, he 
began in Boston the publication of a weekly paper 
called the " Liberator," which he continued for thir- 
ty-five years, until its fight was won and slavery was 
abolished. 

How well that fight was waged history has shown. 
In his first number he announced : " I will be as 
harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice. 
On this subject I do not wish to think, to speak, or 
write with moderation. No ! No ! Tell the man 
whose home is on fire to give a moderate alarm ; tell 
the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the 
fire into which it has fallen ; but urge me not to use 
moderation in a cause like the present. I am in 
earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — 
I will not retreat a single inch — and I will be heard." 

265 



A Guide to Biography 

And heard he was. The whole hand was soon 
filled with excitement; the apathy of years was 
broken. From the south came hundreds of letters 
threatening him with death if he did not desist, and 
the state of Georgia offered a reward of $5,000 for 
his apprehension. In the north, anti-slavery socie- 
ties were formed everywhere, and the movement grew 
with great rapidity, in spite of powerful efforts to 
crush it. There were riots everywhere. Garrison 
was dragged through the streets of Boston with a 
rope around his body and his life was saved only by 
lodging him in jail ; Elijah Love joy was slain at Al- 
ton, Illinois, while defending his press; Marius Rob- 
inson, an anti-slavery lecturer, was tarred and feath- 
ered in Mahoning County, Ohio ; in the cities of the 
south, mobs broke into the postoffiee and made bon- 
fires of anti-slavery papers and pamphlets found 
there. Quarrels and dissension in the anti-slavery 
ranks developed in time, but when the Civil War was 
over, the leaders of the Republican party united 
with Garrison's friends in raising for him the sum 
of $30,000, and after his death the city of Boston 
raised a statue to his memory. Perhaps no better 
estimate of him has ever been made than that of John 
A. Andrew, war governor of Massachusetts : 

" The generation which preceded ours regarded 
him only as a wild enthusiast, a fanatic, or a public 
enemy. The present generation sees in him the bold 
and honest reformer, the man of original, self-poised, 
heroic will, inspired by a vision of universal justice, 
made actual in the practice of nations; who, daring 

266 



Pliilautbropists and Reformers 

to attack without reserve the worst and most power- 
ful oppression of his country and his time, has out- 
lived the giant wrong he assailed, and has triumphed 
over the sophistries by which it was maintained." 

Closely second to Garrison in the awakening of the 
public conscience to the enormities of slavery was 
Theodore Parker, one of the purest, most self-sacrific- 
ing and interesting of personalities. He came of good 
stock. His grandfather, John Parker, commanded the 
little company of minute-men who held the bridge at 
Lexington on that fateful nineteenth of April, 1775 ; 
his father a farmer, and Theodore himself the young- 
est of eleven children. The family was poor and the 
boy was brought up to hard labor, with short inter- 
vals of schooling now and then. But his thirst for 
knowledge seems to have been insatiable, and he read 
everything he could lay his hands on, even to transla- 
tions of Homer and Plutarch and Rollin's " Ancient 
History." A century ago, a book was a far greater 
treasure than it is to-day, when their very number 
has made us in a way contemptuous of them ; and 
the few which young Parker could secure were read 
and re-read and learned through and through. His 
memory was amazing, and at the age of twenty he 
walked from his home in Lexington to Cambridge, 
took the entrance examination for Harvard College, 
passed with honors, and, walking home again, told 
his unsuspecting father, then in bed, of his success. 
He could not be spared from the farm, however, nor 
was there any money to pay for his maintenance at 
Cambridge, so he continued working on the farm, 

267 



A Guide to Biography 

keeping up with his class by studying in the even- 
ings and going to Cambridge only to take the ex- 
aminations. 

He undertook teaching after that, and gradually 
worked his way toward the ministry, to which he was 
admitted in 1837. He was soon called to Boston, 
to a congregation independent of sectarian bonds, 
and here he reached the culmination of his fame, 
attracting the most cultured people of the city by his 
breadth of knowledge, warmth of feeling and inten- 
sity of conviction. His interest in slavery began 
early, and by 1845, his share in the anti-slavery 
struggle had become engrossing. He threw himself 
into it heart and soul, and no one did more to 
awaken the conscience of the north. His speeches, 
letters, sermons, tracts and lectures had an immense 
influence ; he took an active part in aiding runaway 
slaves to get to Canada, and his labors were inces- 
sant and prodigious. His health at last gave way, 
and the end came in 1860, at Florence, Italy, where 
he lies buried. 

Parker's immense influence was due to the brain 
rather than to the heart. He possessed no grace of 
person, music of voice, or charm of manner, none of 
that fascination which is a part of the great orator. 
He was a white-hot flame which scorched and seared, 
an intellect pure and piercing, a self-made instru- 
ment to expose the shams of society. 

Closely associated with Garrison and Parker in 
the fight against slavery, and in some ways more fa- 
mous than either, was Wendell Phillips. The very 

2G8 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

opposite of Parker, handsome in person, cultivated 
in manner, with a charm of personality seldom 
equalled, — the two yet worked hand in hand for a 
common cause, the one, as it were, supplementing the 
other. 

Wendell Phillips was the son of John Phillips, the 
first mayor of Boston, and was a year younger than 
Theodore Parker. Pie went the way of all well-to- 
do Boston youth through Harvard, graduating there 
in 1831, without distinguishing himself particularly, 
except by his skill in debate and his finished elocu- 
tion. During one of the revivals of religion which 
followed the settlement of Dr. Lyman Beecher at 
Boston, he became a convert, and this marked the be- 
ginning of his interest in the great moral question 
of the day, slavery. It soon became overwhelming, 
and was given point and passion by a spectacle which 
he witnessed on October 21, 1835. 

He had studied for the law, been admitted to the 
bar, and opened an office, and looking from his office 
window on that October day, he saw a mob break up 
an anti-slavery meeting on the street below, pull 
William Lloyd Garrison off the platform, tear his 
clothes from his back, throw a rope around him and 
drag him through the streets, ready to hang him, 
and prevented from doing so only by a ruse of the 
mayor, who got Garrison into the jail and locked 
him up for safety. That spectacle moved the young 
lawyer through and through, and from that moment 
he was an avowed Abolitionist. 

" If clients do not come," he had said to a friend 
269 



A Giiitie to Biography 

a short time before, " I will throw myself heart and 
soul into some good cause and devote my life to it." 

Clients would have eome, no doubt, but the good 
cause came iirst. His opportunity came in 1S37, 
when Elijah Love joy was murdered by a mob at Al- 
ton, Illinois, for publishing an anti-slavery paper. 
Phillip, stirred with indignation, arranged for a pub- 
lic meeting at Faneuil Hall, and was of course pres- 
ent, but with no expectation of speaking. Dr. Chan- 
ning made an impressive address, and one or two 
otlters followed, when James T. Austin, attorney- 
general of the state, and bitterly opposed to the anti- 
slavery agitation, arose. He eulogized the Alton mur- 
derers, comparing them with the patriots of the Rev- 
olution, and declared that Lovejoy had "• died as the 
fool dieth." Some instinct led the chair to call u|H-)n 
Wendell Phillips to reply. He consented, and as he 
stepped upon the platform won instant admiration by 
his dignity, his self-jK'Ssession, and his manly K\Huty. 

"Mr. Chairman," he Wgan, "when I heard the gen- 
tleman who has just sjx^ken lay down principles which 
placed the rioters, incendiaries, and murderers of Al- 
ton side by side with Otis and Harnxx^k. with Quincy 
and Adams, I thought those pictured lips [pointing 
to the portraits in the hall] would have broken into 
voice, to rebuke the recreant American, the slanderer 
of the dead. Sir, for the sentiments he has uttered 
on soil consecratevi by the prayers of Puritans and 
the blood of patriots, the earth should have yawned 
and swallowed him up." 

The etTect of the whole speech was tremendous. At 
270 



Pliihindiropistsi and lu^fonuors 

last tlio abolitionists had found a champion equal to 
the best, and from that hour to the end of the anti- 
shivery conflict, lie Avas foremost in the fii;'ht. Ilo ac- 
cepted without reservation the doctrines which Gar- 
rison had formulated: that slavery was under all 
circumstances a sin and that innncdiate emancipa- 
tion was a fundamental rii;ht and duty. Up and 
down tlu> land, obeviup; evi-ry call so far as his 
streuiith would permit, he travelled, lecturiui]^ against 
slaverv, asking no ]iecuniary reward. He was soon 
a great popular favorite — the greatest, perhaps, who 
ever mounted a lecture platform in America, — and 
gained a hearing in quarters where, before, abolition- 
ists had been hated and derided. His tact in winning 
over a turbulent audience was extraordinary ; the 
strongest opponents of the anti-slaverv cause felt the 
spell of his power, and often confessed the justice 
of his arguments. 

AVhen that tight was won and the negro had gained 
his freedom, Wendell Phillips remained the foremost 
critic of public men and measures in America, and 
year after year, he devoted his great gifts to guid- 
ing popular ojnnion. A chnmpion of tem]Hn"ance, of 
the riglits of labcu-, of the Indians, of equal suffrage, 
he stood forth until his death an inspiring and au- 
gust figure — a man who devoted his life wholly to 
the welfare of his country. 

One of the reforms which Wendell riiillips advo- 
cated was that of woman suffrage, but this movement 
t:is come to be particularly associated with the name 
of Susan B, Anthony. Like her great predecessor in 

271 



A Guide to Biography 

that cause, Lucretia Mott, Miss Anthony was a 
Quaker, and the Quakers, it should be remembered, 
made no distinction of sex when it came to speaking 
in their meeting-houses. Her father was well-to-do, 
and she received a careful education, and in 1847, 
first spoke in public. The temperance movement ab- 
sorbed her energies at first; then the Abolitionist 
cause; and finally the work of securing equal civil 
rights for women. During the winter of 1854, she 
held woman suffrage meetings in every county in 
New York State, and the remainder of her life was 
devoted to this cause. 

Her most prominent co-worker was Elizabeth 
Cady Stanton, whose inspiration came directly from 
Lucretia Mott, whom she met in 1840, and with 
whom she joined, eight years later, in issuing a call 
for the first woman's suffrage convention. The con- 
vention was held at Mrs. Stanton's home at Seneca 
Falls, New York, and from that time forward, she 
devoted herself entirely to lecturing and writing 
upon the subject. That the cause of woman suffrage 
has made so little headway is certainly not because 
of a lack of devoted and accomplished advocates; it 
seems rather to be due to the fact that it has not yet 
succeeded in winning over the great body of women, 
who have held aloof and viewed the movement with 
indifference, if not with suspicion. 

We cannot close this consideration of the anti- 
slavery movement without some reference to that 
strange fanatic, John Brown, who headed a forlorn 

272 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

hope and gave up his life for an idea. It was the 
custom at one time to consider John Brown a saint, 
at the north, and a very emissary of Satan, at the 
south. One estimate was as untrue as the other. 
He was merely a misguided old man, grown a little 
mad, perhaps, from long brooding over one subject. 

He was born at Torrington, Connecticut, in 1800, 
his father being a shoemaker and tanner, who, five 
years later, moved to Hudson, Ohio, then a mere out- 
post in the wilderness. He was soon expert in 
woodcraft, and he relates how, when he was six 
years old, an Indian boy gave him a yellow marble, 
the first he had ever seen, and which he treasured for 
a long time. He had little or no schooling, and a 
project to educate him for the ministry was cut 
short by an inflammation of the eyes. He grew up 
into a tall, handsome man, headstrong, but humane 
and kind, and easily moved to tears. He married 
young and had many children, for some of whom a 
tragic fate was waiting. 

He soon became interested in the anti-slavery 
movement, and, by 1837, was so absorbed by it that 
he made his family take a solemn oath of active op- 
position to slavery. Ten years later, he unfolded to 
Frederick Douglass a plan for a negro insurrection 
in the Virginia mountains, but nothing came of it. 
From that time forward, the project seems to have 
.slumbered at the back of his mind, and he grew more 
and more certain that the only way to end slavery 
was to arm the blacks and encourage them to fight 
for freedom. In 1854, his sons emigrated to Kansas, 

273 



A Guide to Biography 

then in the throes of civil war over the slavery ques- 
tion, and their father busied himself raising money 
to send arms and ammunition into the troubled 
state. Finally, in September, 1855, he himself re- 
moved to Kansas, became the captain of a band of 
Free State Rangers, took part in the fight at Law- 
rence, and in some other affairs, and then, proceed- 
ing to the shores of Pottawatomie creek, where sev- 
eral pro-slavery men lived, seized five of them and 
put them to death. 

For this deed he never experienced any compunc- 
tion ; he believed that lie was directed by Providence 
in these " executions," as he called them, and after 
they were over, he held divine services. His fearful 
deed sent a thrill of horror through the country, and 
Brown and his sons became marked men. Their 
houses were burned, and one of the sons went insane 
from brooding over the father's deed. Brown him- 
self was charged with murder, treason and conspir- 
acy, and a price put on his head, but no one at- 
tempted to arrest him. Another of liis sons was soon 
afterwards shot and killed by pro-slavery men and 
Brown, hastily collecting a small force, attacked the 
marauders, and killed or wounded many of them, 
himself being injured by a spent rifle ball. The fight 
was known as " the battle of Osawatomie," and 
Brown was thereafterwards known as " Osawa- 
tomie " Brown. 

But the fight in Kansas was about won, and 
Brown again took up the idea of a slave insurrection. 
He went to Boston to raise the necessary money, and 

274 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

succeeded in getting it without much trouble, though 
most of the people who gave it to him had only the 
haziest kind of an idea of what it was he proposed 
to do. He bought rifles and ammunition, and also 
had a thousand pikes made with which to arm the 
negroes, who, of course, would not know how to use 
the rifle. Then he got together a band of young 
men, secured a military instructor; and on July 3, 
1859, he appeared at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, 
hired a small farm near there, and quietly assembled 
his men and munitions. 

Harper's Ferry had been selected because there 
was a well-equipped arsenal there which would fur- 
nish the arms and munitions which he had been un- 
able to buy, and would also serve as a base of opera- 
tions. Brown intended to proceed to the mountains, 
gathering up the slaves as he went, and establish 
headquarters in some strong position, where he could 
drill his forces and prepare for a raid on the rest 
of the state. He believed the slaves would flock to 
him, and that he would soon be at the head of a 
great army. He tried to get Frederick Douglass to 
join him, but Douglass refused, and, at last, on the 
night of Sunday, October 16, 1859, at the head of 
a little band of twenty-two men, whites and negroes, 
he moved on the arsenal. They reached the covered 
bridge over the Potomac without adventure, crossed 
until they were near the Virginia side, seized the 
solitary sentinel who challenged them, broke do\vn 
the armory gate with a sledge hammer, seized the 
remainder of the guard, and a few citizens, who at- 

275 



A Guide to Biography 

tempted to interfere, and were soon firmly in posses- 
sion of not only the arsenal, but also the little town. 

Meanwhile, the country round about was arming, 
and by noon, of Monday, Brown was so surrounded 
that he could not escape. Why he had not got away 
to the mountains in the morning, as he had intended 
doing, no one knows. The Virginia militia gathered, 
and in the early evening, a company of United 
States marines arrived from Washington, under 
command of Colonel Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant 
J. E. B. Stuart. They soon found out how small 
Brown's force was, carried the arsenal by assault, 
and took Brown and the survivors of his little band 
prisoners. Brown's two sons were dead, as were 
seven others of his followers, and seven more had 
succeeded in escaping, though two were afterwards 
captured. 

The rest is soon told. Brown was swiftly tried 
and convicted of " treason and conspiring and ad- 
vising with slaves and others to rebel, and of murder 
in the first degree," was sentenced to death, and was 
hanged on December 2, 1859. The affair made the 
South wild with rage and apprehension, for a slave 
insurrection was a thing to be trembled at, and 
Brown's execution similarly affected his friends at 
the North. He had once remarked, " I am worth a 
good deal more to hang than for any other purpose," 
and this was, in a sense, true, for in the words of 
the great marching song of the E^orthern armies dur- 
ing the war which followed, " his soul was marching 
on." 

276 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

Another branch of philanthropy with which the 
name of a woman is closely identified is that of car- 
ing for the wounded and destitute in time of war or 
disaster, and the woman is Clara Barton. Born in 
Massachusetts about 1830, she started in life as a 
school-teacher, but in 1854 secured a position in the 
patent ofiice at Washington, where she remained un- 
til the opening of the Civil War. The sight of the 
suffering in the Washington hospitals revealed to her 
her real vocation, and she determined to devote her- 
self to the care of wounded soldiers on the battle- 
field. This work of mercy was one that carried with 
it a wide appeal, and she soon secured influential 
backing and support. 

Her work was so effective that in 1864, she was 
appointed " lady in charge " of the hospitals at the 
front of the Army of the James, and in the follow- 
ing year was sent to Andersonville, Georgia, to iden- 
tify and mark the graves of the Union soldiers 
buried there. Soon afterwards she was placed by 
President Lincoln in charge of the search for miss- 
ing men of the Union armies — a work of the first 
importance, to which she devoted all her energies, 
and which she carried on for some years after 
the war closed, raising the necessary money by lec- 
tures and appeals for donations. Thousands of 
families at the North have reason to thank her 
for definite knowledge as to the fate of their loved 
ones. 

Her health broke down under the strain, at last, 
and she went for a rest to Switzerland, but the out- 

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A Guide to Biography 

break of the Franco-German war, in 1870, called her 
again to duty, assisting the grand duchess of Baden 
in the preparation of military hospitals, and giving 
the Red Cross Society the benefit of her experience. 
In 1871, at the request of the German authorities, 
she superintended the supplying of work to the poor 
of Strasburg, after that city had been reduced by 
siege; and after the fall of Paris, she was placed 
in charge of the distribution of supplies to the desti- 
tute of that great city. At the close of the war, she 
was decorated with the golden cross of Baden and 
the iron cross of Germany. 

Although the Red Cross societies in Europe had 
been established as early as 1863, and an interna- 
tional organization completed six years later, the 
society was not officially recognized by the United 
States until 1882. The American Association of 
the Red Cross was at once organized, and Miss Bar- 
ton chosen its president, a position which she held 
without opposition for many years. Its object as 
stated by its constitution is " to organize a system of 
national relief and apply the same in mitigating 
suffering caused by war, pestilence, famine and other 
calamities." Since then, every such occasion has 
found the society in the forefront of relief work, and 
it has distributed many millions in assuaging human 
suffering. 

Still another great reform, ridiculed at first, but 
now recognized as one of the most beneficent move- 
ments of the age is associated with a single name. 

278 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

The reform is the protection of dumb animals, and 
the name is that of Henry Bergh. 

Born in New York City in 1823, the son of a 
wealthy ship-builder and inheriting his father's for- 
tune at the age of twenty, Henry Bergh, after spend- 
ing some years in Europe, a portion of them in the 
diplomatic service of the United States, returned 
to this country, determined to devote the remainder 
of his life to the interests of animals. 

It was a new idea which he presented to the pub- 
lic, met at first with indifference, then with ridicule 
and opposition. But as a bold worker in the streets 
of New York, by a relentless activity in carrying cases 
of ill-treatment of animals to the courts, and an elo- 
quent advocacy of his cause on the floor of the legis- 
lature, he soon won friends and support, as every 
great cause is bound to do, and finally succeeded in 
so winning over public sentiment that, in 1866, the 
legislature passed the laws which he had prepared, 
creating the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals, with himself as president. He gave not 
only his time, but his property to the work, and soon 
had the society in a prosperous condition, with 
branches forming in other cities. Indeed, the idea 
which he fostered has spread to the whole country, 
and nowhere may animals be mistreated with im- 
punity. The idea that man is responsible not only 
for the happiness of his fellows, but for the well- 
being of his beasts marks a long stride forward in 
ethics. 

Bergh's influence, indeed, extended beyond this 
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A Guide to Biography 

country. Not ouly did practically every state in the 
Union enact the laws for the protection of animals 
which he had procured from the state of New York, 
but Brazil, the Argentine Bepublic, and many other 
foreign countries did likewise. In 1874, Bergh res- 
cued a little girl from inhuman treatment, and this 
led to the formation of the Society for the Preven- 
tion of Cruelty to Children, which has also done a 
great work. 

No doubt before Bergh's time, there were many 
people who were pained to see either children or ani- 
mals mistreated and who passed by wuth averted eyes. 
Bergh did not pass by. He made it his business, in 
the first place, to secure adequate laws for the pun- 
ishment of cruelty, and in the second place, to pro- 
vide means for the enforcement of those laws. 

There are many of us to-day who are shocked at 
the injustice and suffering in the world, and who 
would welcome its regeneration. But wishing for 
a thing never got it. Nor does philanthropy con- 
sist merely in wishing men well. It means labor 
and self-sacrifice, and frequently obloquy and mis- 
understanding. The reward of the reformer is usu- 
ally a stone and a sneer, if nothing worse. But when 
a man's heart is in the work, stones and sneers seem 
only to spur him on. They are like wind to a 
flame, fanning it white-hot. And it is a wonder- 
ful commentary on the essential goodness of human 
nature that never yet, in the history of mankind, 
has a real and needed reform failed, in the end, of 
success. 

280 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

Among latter-day clergymen in America, none has 
achieved a wider reputation or a greater personal 
popularity than Phillips Brooks. Born in Boston in 
1835, a graduate of Harvard, ordained to the Episco- 
pal ministry at the age of twenty-four, and ten 
years later called to the rectorship of Trinity church, 
Boston, it was in this latter field, which he would 
never leave, that he showed himself to be one of the 
strongest personalities and noblest preachers of his 
age. No more striking figure ever appeared in a 
pulpit. Of magnificent physique, with a striking 
and massive head and handsome countenance, breath- 
ing the very spirit of youth, in spite of his grey hair, 
he had the interest and attention of any audience be- 
fore he opened his lips. 

Phillips Brooks has been compared to Henry 
Ward Beecher, and in many things they were alike. 
But the former's culture, while perhaps less varied 
than Beecher's, was deeper and richer, his sermons 
were less brilliant but cast in better form, his ap- 
peal was narrower but to a far more influential class. 
He was, in a word, the preacher of the intellectual. 
No one who heard him preach ever failed to be 
startled at first by his tremendous rapidity of delivery 
— averaging two hundred words a minute — or failed 
to find himself, at first, lagging behind the equal 
rapidity of thought. But once accustomed to these 
— once realizing that, in listening to him there could 
be no inattention or wandering of wits — his sermon 
became a source of keenest intellectual delight and 
noblest spiritual inspiration. 

281 



A Guide to Biography 

Phillips Brooks often said that he had to preach 
rapidly, or not at all. In youth he had suffered from 
something resembling an impediment in his speech, 
and more measured utterance gave it a chance to 
recur. Certainly, no one who ever listened to his 
fluent and limpid utterance would have suspected it. 
But he was far more than a great preacher. By his 
broad tolerance, his lofty character and immense 
personal influence, he became, in a way, a national 
figure, the common property of the nation which felt 
itself the richer for possessing him. A gracious and 
courtly figure, with a heart as wide as the human 
race, he lives, somehow, as the true type of clergy- 
man, whose concern is humanity and whose field the 
world. 

Which brings us to the life of the last man we 
shall consider in this chapter, a man the opposite 
in many ways of the great clergyman whose career 
we have just noted, and yet, like him, of broadest 
sympathies and most sincere convictions; a man 
whose life was more picturesque, whose battle against 
fate was harder, and whose achievement was even 
more remarkable — the greatest evangelist the mod- 
ern world has ever produced, Dwight L. Moody. 
If ever a man labored for his fellow-men, he 
did, and the story of his life reads almost like a 
romance. 

He was born at Northfield, Massachusetts, in 
1837, the son of a stone-mason, who, disheartened 
and worn out by business reverses, died when the 
boy was only four years old. There were nine chil- 

282 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

dren, the oldest only fifteen, and when the father's 
creditors came and took every possession they had 
in the world, the future looked dark indeed. The 
mother was urged to place the children in various 
homes, but she managed to keep them together by 
doing housework for the neighbors and tilling a little 
garden. 

As soon as he was old enough, Dwight was put to 
work on a farm, but his earnings were small, and 
finally, when he was seventeen, he started for Boston 
to look for something better. He managed to get a 
position in a shoe-store, and there came under the 
influence of Edward Kimball, who persuaded him 
to become a Christian and to join a church. But he 
was not admitted to membership for nearly a year; 
so poor was his command of language and so awk- 
ward his sentences that it was doubted if he under- 
stood Christianity at all, and even when he was ad- 
mitted, the committee stated that they thought him 
" very unlikely ever to become a Christian of clear 
and decided views of gospel truth ; still less to fill any 
extended sphere of public usefulness." How blind, 
indeed, we often are to the possibilities in human 
nature ! 

At the age of nineteen, Dwight removed to Chi- 
cago, secured another position as shoe-salesman, and 
offered his services to a mission school as a teacher. 
His appearance made anything but a favorable im- 
pression, but finally he was told that he might teach 
provided he brought his own scholars. The next 
Sunday he walked in at the head of a score of raga- 

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A Guide to Biography 

muffins lie had gathered up along the wharves. The 
divine fire seems to have been working in him ; 
he was finding words with which to express himself, 
and burning for a wider field. So he rented a room 
in the slum districts which had been used as a saloon 
and opened a Sunday school there. It was an im- 
mense success, soon outgrew the little room, and was 
removed to a large hall, where, every Sunday, a 
thousand boys and girls attended. For six years. 
Moody conducted that school, sweeping it out and 
doing the janitor work himself, attending to his busi- 
ness as salesman throughout the week. But in 1860, 
at the age of twenty-three, he decided to devote all 
his time to Christian work. 

He had no income, and to keep his expenses as low 
as possible, he slept at night on a bench in his school, 
and cooked his own food. Then the Civil War be- 
gan, and he erected a tent at the camp near Chicago 
where the recruits were gathered, and labored there 
all day, sometimes holding eight or ten meetings. 
He went with the men to the front, and was at the 
desperate battles of Shiloh, Murfreesboro, and Chat- 
tanooga. The war over, he took up again his work 
in Chicago. The great fire of 1871 swept away his 
church, but he soon had a temporary structure 
erected, and labored on. 

By this time, his fame had got abroad, and finally 
in 1873, his great opportunity came. Accompanied 
by Ira D. Sankey, the famous singer of hymns, he 
started on an evangelist tour of Great Britain. At 
his first meeting only four people were present; at 

284 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

his last, thirty thousand crowded to hear him. In 
Ireland, the crowds sometimes covered six acres, and 
during the four months he spent in London, over two 
million people heard him preach. Great Britain had 
never before experienced such a religious awaken- 
ing ; but it was as nothing to the reception given him 
when he returned to America two years later. There 
are many people still living who remember those 
wonderful revivals in Philadelphia, Kew York, and 
Boston, with their great choirs, and Ira Sankey's 
singing, and Moody's soul-stirring talks. From that 
time forward he was easily the first evangelist in 
the world — perhaps the greatest the world had ever 
seen. 

It is doubtful if any man ever faced and preached 
to so many people. He spoke to thousands night 
after night, week in and week out. In his themes he 
kept close to life, and few men Avere his equal in 
making scriptural biography vivid and realistic; in 
reconstructing scriptural scenes and setting them, as 
it were, bodily before his audience. He was not a 
cultured man, as Ave understand the word — not a 
man of broad learning ; perhaps such learning would 
only have weakened him — nor did he have the pres- 
ence and voice which go so far toAvard the equipment 
of the orator. But he burned Avitli an intense con- 
viction, and his sermons were so free from art, so 
direct, so persuasive, that they were perfectly adapted 
to the end he sought — the conversion of human 
beings. 

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A Guide to Biography 

SUMMARY 

CiiRARP, STEriiFN. Boru near Bordoavix, Franco, 
May v4, IToO; sailed as eabin-bov to West Indie^^ and 
then to America; established in Phihidelphia, 17(50; 
tinaiicial ntainstay of government in war of 18 IC; died 
at Philadelpliia, Deeember vi>. ISol. 

Smithson, James Lewis j\[acie. Born in France 
in 1765; matriculated from Tenibroke College, Oxford, 
England, 178'?; Fellow Koval Society, 1786; distin- 
guished as student of mineralogy and chemistry; died 
at (icnoa, Italy, June 27, 18'^!\ 

CoorKR. rKTKR. Bom at New York Ciiy, February 
IC, 1791 ; apprenticed to carriage-maker, 1808; engaged 
in various enterprises and established Canton Iron 
Works, Canton, Maryland, 1830; Greenback candidate 
for President, 1876; died at New York, April 4, 18So. 

Peabody, George, Born at Danvers. ^lassachusetts, 
February 18, 17Po ; settled in London as a banker, 1837; 
died there, November -4, 18611. 

HoPKixs, JoHxs. Born at Waterbury, Connecticut, 
May IP, 179o; founded house of Hopkins v'v Brothers, 
IS'-?? ; chairman of finance committee Baltinu">re iS: Ohio 
railroad, 1855; died at Baltimore, December 'M, 1873. 

Cornell, Ezra. Born at Westchester Landing, New- 
York. January 11, 1807; mechanic and miller at Ithaca, 
New Y'ork, 18v'8-41 ; member of State Assembly, 186'2- 
63 ; State Senator, 1864-67 ; died at Ithaca, New Y'ork. 
December 9, 1874. 

2 SO 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

Slater, Joifn Fox. Born at Slatersvillo, Rhode 
Island, March 4, 1815; established Slater Fund, 1882; 
died at Norwich, Connecticut, May 7, 1884. 

Stanford, Leland. Born at Watervliet, New York, 
March 9, 1824; Republican governor of California, 
1861-63; United States Senator, 1885-93; died at Palo 
Alto, California, June 20, 1893. 

Rockefeller, John Davison. Born at Richford, 
New York, July 8, 1839; partner of Clark & Rocke- 
feller, 1858; built Standard Oil Works, Cleveland, 
Ohio, 1865; organized Standard Oil Company, 1870; 
Standard Oil Trust, 1882. 

Carnegie, Andrew. Born at Dunfermline, Fife- 
shire, Scotland, November 25, 1837; came to United 
States, 1848; telegraph messenger boy, 1851; intro- 
duced Bessemer steel process to America, 1868; formed 
Carnegie Steel Company, 1899; merged into United 
States Steel Corporation, 1901, when he retired from 
business. 

Beecher, Lyman. Born at New Haven, Connecti- 
cut, October 12, 1775; pastor of various Congregational 
churches, 1799-1832; president Lane Theological Sem- 
inary, 1832-51 ; died at Brooklyn, New York, January 
10, 1863. 

Beecher, Henry Ward. Born at Litchfield, Con- 
necticut, June 24, 1813; graduated at Amherst, 1834; 
pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church, Brooklyn, 
1847-87 ; founder of the Independent and the Christian 
Union; died at Brooklyn, March 8, 1887. 

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A Guide to Biography 

Channing, William Ellery. Born at Newport, 
Ehode Island, April 7, 1780; graduated at Harvard, 
1798; pastor of Federal Street Church, Boston, 1803- 
43; died at Bennington, Vermont, October 2, 1842. 

JuDSON, Adonibam. Born at Maiden, Massachusetts, 
August 9, 1788; graduated at Brown, 1807; started as 
missionary to Burmah, 1812, and remained in far East 
until his death, April 12, 1850. 

MoTT, LucRETiA. Born at Nantucket, Massachusetts, 
January 3, 1793; entered ministry of Friends, 1818; 
assisted at formation of American anti-slavery society, 
1833; called first woman suffrage convention, 1848; 
died near Philadelphia, November 11, 1880. 

Dix, Dorothea Lynde. Born at Worcester, Massa- 
chusetts, 1805; devoted her whole life to work for pau- 
pers, convicts, and insane persons; superintendent of 
hospital nurses during Civil War ; died at Trenton, New 
Jersey, July 19, 1887. 

Child, Lydia Maria. Born at Medford, Massachu- 
setts, February 11, 1802; editor National Anti-Slavery 
Standard, 1840-43; published a number of novels; died 
at Wayland, Massachusetts, October 20, 1880. 

Garrison, William Lloyd. Born at Newburyport, 
Massachusetts, December 10, 1805; began publication 
of the Liberator, 1831 ; president American Anti-Slav- 
ery Society, 1843-65 ; died at New York City, May 24, 
1879. 

Parker, Theodore, Born at Lexington, Massachu- 
setts, August 24, 1810 ; studied at Cambridge Divinity 
School, 1834-36; Unitarian clergyman at Koxbury, 

288 



Philanthropists and Reformers 

1837; head of an independent society at Music Hall, 
Boston, 1846; died at Florence, Italy, May 10, 1860. 

Phillips, Wendell. Born at Boston, November 29, 
1811; educated at Harvard; admitted to the bar, 1834; 
leading orator of the Abolitionists, 1837-61 ; president 
of the Anti-Slavery Society, 1865-70; Prohibitionist 
candidate for governor of Massachusetts, 1870; died at 
Boston, February 2, 1884. 

Anthony, Susan Brownell. Born at South Adams, 
Massachusetts, February 15, 1820 ; became agitator in 
cause of woman suffrage, organized National American 
Woman Suffrage Association and was its president for 
many years; died March 13, 1906. 

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Born at Jolinstown, 
New York, November 12, 1815; graduated at Willard 
Seminary, 1832; met Lucretia j\lott, 1840; held first 
woman's suffrage convention, 1848; associated with 
Susan B. Anthony ; died at New York City, October 26, 
1902. 

Brown, John. Born at Torrington, Connecticut, 
May 9, 1800 ; removed with parents to Ohio, 1805 ; emi- 
grated to Kansas, 1855 ; won battle of Osawatomie, 
August, 1856 ; seized arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Vir- 
ginia, October 16, 1859; captured, October 18; tried by 
Commonwealth of Virginia, October 27-31 ; hanged at 
Charlestown, Virginia, December 2, 1859. 

Barton, Clara. Born at Oxford, Massachusetts, 
1821 ; superintended relief work on battle-fields during 
Civil War; laid out grounds of national cemetery at 
Andersonville, 1865; worked through Franco-Prussian 
war, 1870; distributed relief in Strasburg, Belfort, 

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A Guide to Biography 

Montpelier, Paris, 1871 ; secured adoption of Treaty 
of Geneva, 1882; president American Ked Cross So- 
ciety, 1881-1904. 

Bergh, Henry. Born at New York City, 1823; 
eecretary of legation at St. Petersburg, 1862-64 ; organ- 
ized American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals, 1866; founded Society for the Prevention of 
Cruelty to Children, 1874; died at New York City, 
March 12, 1888. 

Brooks, Phillips, Born at Boston, December 13, 
1835; graduated at Harvard, 1855; graduated from 
Episcopal Seminary, Alexandria, Virginia, 1859; rector 
of Trinity Church, Boston, 1870-93; elected Bishop of 
Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, 1891 ; died at Bos- 
ton, January 23, 1893. 

Moody, Dwight Lyman. Born at Northfield, Mas- 
sachusetts, February 5, 1837; started missionary work 
at Chicago, 1856; conducted revival meetings in Great 
Britain, 1873-75; and devoted the remainder of his life 
to this work; died at Northfield, December 22, 1899. 



290 



CHAPTER IX 

MEN OF AFFAIRS 

ALMOST from the first years of her existence 
America has been known chiefly as a commercial 
nation, as a nation noted for her men of affairs, 
rather than for her artists and men of letters. Which 
is to say that the life of the Republic has been prac- 
tical rather than artistic, and it is only of late years, 
except for a sporadic instance here and there, that 
any genuine artistic impulse has made itself felt. 

This is not a cause of reproach. Given the cir- 
cumstances, it was inevitable that America should 
develop first on her commercial side. Here was a 
great continent, stretching thousands of miles to the 
westward, waiting for man's occupancy. Millions of 
acres of plain and woodland awaited development. 
There were cities to found and rivers to bridge and 
roads to make and soil to till and gold to dig before 
America could think of w-riting poetry or painting 
pictures. Think — it is only three centuries since 
Jamestown was founded ; only a century and a quar- 
ter since we became a nation — a mere handbreadth 
of time when compared with the long centuries of 
English or French or Italian history. We have al- 
ready said that for art historic background is neces- 

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A Guide to Biography 

saiy; a background of achievement and tradition. 
Such a background we are just achieving. Besides, 
during our first century, there were such great deeds 
of conquest and development to be done that they 
challenged our strongest men. Great fortunes were 
made, as a matter of course, and Europe witnessed 
the unique spectacle of men, born in poverty and ob- 
scurity, rising to be captains of the world. It is this 
which has never ceased to shock the European sense 
of the fitness of things — that the poor boy of yester- 
day may be the millionaire of to-morrow and take 
his place with the greatest of the nation. It is the 
story of a few such boys which will be told in this 
chapter. 

First is the man who financed the Revolution and 
who to a large extent made possible its successful 
termination — Robert Morris. Born in Liverpool, 
England, in 1734, he came to this country with his 
father at the age of thirteen, and a place was soon 
found for him in the counting-house of Charles Wil- 
ling, a wealthy merchant of Philadelphia. By his 
diligence and activity, as well as unusual intelli- 
gence, he grew in favor and confidence, until, upon 
the death of the elder Willing, he was taken into 
partnership by the hitter's son, and by the opening 
of the Revolution, the firm of Willing & Morris was 
one of the largest and most prosperous in Philadel- 
phia. 

Of English birth, and bound to England by the 
ties of business, Morris was nevertheless opposed to 
the stamp-act and was one of those who, in 1765, 

292 



Men of Affairs 

signed an agreement to import nothing further from 
England until the act was repealed. He was, how- 
ever, opposed to independence, and, as a member of 
the Continental Congress, voted on July 1, 1776, 
against the Declaration. Three days later he de- 
clined to vote, but when the Declaration was adopted, 
he signed it, and threw in his fortunes unreservedly 
with his new country. His services were more than 
valuable — they were indispensable. As a member of 
the Committee of Ways and Means, he backed the 
government's credit with his own. Without his aid, 
the last campaigns of the war would have been im- 
possible. It was he who supplied General Green 
with munitions of war for the great campaign 
of the south, and shortly afterwards raised a 
million and a half on his own notes to assist 
Washington in the movement which resulted in 
the capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown. A year 
later, when the financial situation of the government 
had become desperate, he organized the Bank of 
N^ortli America to assist in financing it. For three 
years, he acted as superintendent of finance, with 
complete control of the monetary affairs of the coun- 
try. He was a member of the Constitutional Conven- 
tion, and when the new government was organized, 
Washington asked him to accept the treasury port- 
folio, but he declined, suggesting instead Alexander 
Hamilton. That was not the least of his services to 
America, for Hamilton was preeminently the man 
for the place. 

It was the striking irony of fate that the man 
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A Guide to Biography 

who had controlled the finances of a nation and by 
his personal exertions saved it from bankruptcy 
should himself die in a debtor's prison ; yet such 
was the case. A series of unfortunate land specula- 
tions swept away his wealth and ruined his credit; 
he found himself unable to meet his obligations and 
was seized by his creditors and thrown into prison, 
where he remained for some years, and where death 
found him in 1806. 

So Robert Morris was not one of the founders of 
great fortunes. Turn we to the earliest and perhaps 
most successful of these, John Jacob Astor, the very 
type of the astute, large-minded, and far-sighted 
financier. Born at Waldorf, Germany, in 1763, the 
son of a poor butcher in whose shop he worked until 
sixteen years of age, there was nothing in his life 
or circumstances to indicate the future which lay be- 
fore him. One of his brothers, however, had come 
to America and settled at New York, and young 
John Astor resolved to join him in the land of op- 
portunity. At the age of twenty, he was able to do 
so, bringing with him some musical instruments to 
sell on commission, but a chance acquaintance which 
he made on shipboard changed the whole course of 
his life. 

This acquaintance was that of a furrier, who told 
young Astor of the great profits to be made by buy- 
ing furs from the Indians and selling them to the 
large dealers. Perhaps he exaggerated the profits of 
the business ; at any rate, he fired the ambition of his 
hearer, and the latter decided to enter the fur busi- 

294 



Men of Affairs 

ness without delay. Upon landing in Xew York, 
therefore, he at once secured a position in the shop 
of a Quaker furrier, and after learning all the de- 
tails of the business, opened a shop of his own. 

Perhaps no one ever worked harder in establish- 
ing a business than John Jacob Astor did. Early 
and late he was at his shop, except when absent on 
long and arduous purchasing expeditions into the 
wilderness. More than that, he possessed admirable 
business judgment, so that, after fifteen years of 
work, he had succeeded in accumulating a fortune of 
a quarter of a million dollars. With careful and sa- 
gacious management, the business prospered so that 
Astor was soon able to send his furs to Europe in his 
own vessels, and bring back European goods. And 
about this time, he began working on a grandiose and 
picturesque enterprise. 

The English Hudson Bay Company, established 
many years before, with hundreds of trappers and 
traders and scores of trading-posts, controlled the 
rich fur business of Canada and the northwest. "We 
have seen how, years after the events which we are 
now narrating, the agents of the company tried to 
save Oregon for England and how Marcus Whitman 
foiled them. Aster's plan, in outline, was to render 
American trade independent of the Hudson Bay 
Company by establishing a chain of trading-posts 
from the great lakes to the Pacific, to plant a central 
depot at the mouth of the Columbia river, and to 
acquire one of the Sandwich Islands and establish a 
line of vessels between the western coast of America 

295 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

and the ports of Japan, China and India. Surely a 
man who could conceive a plan like that was some- 
thing more than a mere trader, and Astor proceeded 
at once to carry it into effect. 

Two expeditions were sent out, one by land and 
one by sea, to open up intercourse with the Indians 
of the Pacific coast, and the settlement of Astoria 
was planted at the mouth of the Columbia river. 
Whether Astor would have been able to carry out the 
remainder of his plan is purely problematical, for 
before he had it fairly under way, the war of 1812 
began, and he was forced to abandon the enterprise. 
The story of this far-reaching project has been told 
by Washing-ton Irving in his " Astoria." Until his 
death, he continued to enlarge and increase his busi- 
ness, and left a fortune estimated at twenty millions 
of dollars. 

The Astor plan of investment is one of the safest, 
most sagacious in the world. Practically all of his 
profits were invested by John Jacob Astor in real 
estate outside the compact portion of the city of 
I^ew York. As the city grew out to his holdings, 
he would improve them, rent or sell them, and re- 
invest further out. In this way the growth of the 
city marked also the growth of his fortune, and this 
plan of investment has been followed by his descend- 
ants to the present day, until they have become by 
far the most important owners of real estate in New 
York City. His son, William B. Astor, gave his life 
to the preservation and growth of the vast property 
he inherited, and at his death had more than doubled 

296 



Men of Affairs 

it, dividing an estate of $45,000,000 between his two 
sons. 

Not that the whole thought of these two men was 
money-getting, for their public gifts were numerous 
and important. The most noteworthy was the Astor 
library, founded by John Jacob Astor at the sugges- 
tion of Washington Irving, and largely added to by 
his son, the total amount of the Astor donations to 
it exceeding a million dollars. But they stand as 
two types of sagacious and hard-headed business 
men, to whom money-making and the still more diffi- 
cult art of money-keeping was an instinctive accom- 
plishment. 

The second great American fortune was that 
founded by Cornelius Vanderbilt, as remarkable 
and picturesque a character as this country ever pro- 
duced. Born on Staten Island in 1794, the son of a 
farmer in moderate circumstances, the boy soon de- 
veloped a remarkable talent for trade. His father 
owned a sail-boat, in which he conveyed his produce 
across the bay to the New York markets, and the 
boy soon learned to manage this and was intrusted 
with these daily trips. When he was sixteen years 
old, he bought a boat of his own, in which he ferried 
passengers across the bay, and two years later he was 
owner of two boats and captain of a third. This was 
the beginning of the great fleet of steamers, sloops 
and schooners which he built up for the navigation 
of the shores of New-York bay and the Hudson river, 
which won him the title of " Commodore," which 
clung to him all his life. Before he was forty years 

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A Guide to Biography 

old, he had accumulated a fortune of half a million 
dollars, and was ready for those great financial 
operations which marked his later life. 

The discovery of gold in California led him to 
establish a passenger line by way of Lake Nicaragua 
which netted him ten millions in ten years ; he estab- 
lished a fast line of passenger steamships between 
'New York and Havre; and finally was attracted to 
railway development as a field of enterprise destined 
to win large returns. In the course of a few years 
he had secured control of both the Hudson River and 
j^ew York Central roads, and brought both of them 
to the highest state of efficiency, and after consolidat- 
ing them, extended the system to Chicago by the pur- 
chase of the Lake Shore, the Canada Southern and 
Michigan Central He built a great terminal in New 
York City, and made the system so profitable that, 
from it, and a series of fortunate speculations, he 
accumulated a fortune of $100,000,000, practically 
all of which he bequeathed to his eldest son, William 
Henry. One million was also given for the estab- 
lishment of Vanderbilt University at Nashville, 
Tennessee. 

Cornelius Vanderbilt, for many years, had a very 
poor opinion of his son's financial ability, and giving 
him a small farm on Staten Island, left him to shift 
for himself. Everyone has read of the incident 
which changed this opinion. William needed some 
fertilizer for his farm, and asked his father to give 
him a load of manure from his stables. His father 
told him to go ahead and take a load, and William 

298 



Men of Affairs 

thereupon brought a great scow up to the pier near 
the stables, proceeded to load it, and when his father 
protested, pointed out that he had not specified the 
kind of load, but that he had meant a scow-load. 
This bit of sharp practice pleased his father, and, 
shortly afterwards, the great success with which he 
managed the Staten Island Railroad, as receiver, 
established him in his father's confidence. He con- 
tinued and extended his father's policy of railway in- 
vestment, and added to the great fortune which had 
been left him, and which still remains one of the 
greatest in America, though it has been split up 
among the different branches of the Vauderbilt fam- 
ily. William himself distributed about two millions 
in various benevolent and public enterprises, one of 
the queerest of wliich was the removal of one of 
" Cleopatra's Needles " from Egypt to Central Park, 
ISTew York City, at a cost of over a hundred thousand 
dollars. 

In the business world of New York City, half a 
century ago, no name was more prominent than that 
of A. T. Stewart, whose success as a merchant was 
one of the most astonishing features of the time. 
Born near Belfast, Ireland, in 1803, Stewart was a 
descendant from one of those hardy and thrifty 
Scotch-Irish, whom we have had occasion to mention 
before. His father was a farmer, but died while 
the son was still at school, and at the age of twenty 
the latter came to New York, and after lookino- over 
the field, opened a small store on lower Broadway, 
with a sleeping apartment for himself in the rear. 

299 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

Sncli was the beginning of the greatest dry-goods 
business this country ever saw. It increased by 
leaps and bounds, for Stewart seems to have had a 
sort of instinctive genius for the business. He was 
continually moving to larger and larger quarters, 
and in 1862, built on Broadway a store which was 
at that time the largest in the world, and which, even 
in this day of mammoth structures, commands atten- 
tion. Its cost was nearly three millions, a colossal 
sum for those days ; two thousand people were em- 
ployed in it and it cost a million a year to run. 
But it brought a tremendous return, and its owner 
soon became one of the wealthiest men in New 
York. 

He wanted more than wealth — he hungered for 
political and social honors which were never fully 
his. He had made a large contribution to the fund 
of $100,000 presented by the merchants of New 
York to General Grant, and in 1869, Grant ap- 
pointed him secretary of the treasury. The senate 
refused to confirm the appointment, on the ground 
that the law excluded from that office anyone inter- 
ested in the importation of merchandise. Grant sent 
to the senate a message recommending that this law 
be repealed, but the senate refused ; and Stewart 
thereupon offered to place his business in ihe hands 
of trustees and devote its entire profits to charity 
during his term of office; but still the senate refused, 
and the nomination was withdrawn. It was a bitter 
blow to Stewart, nor was his fight for social promi- 
nence much more fortunate. As his last stake, as it 

300 



Men of Affairs 

were, he began the erection of a great marble palace 
on Fifth Avenue, designed to cost a million and to 
be the finest private residence in the world, but he 
died before it was completed. 

One of the great industries of the country is that 
of sugar refining, and it is inseparably connected with 
the name of Havemeyer, for to the Havemeyers is 
due its development and its formation into a so- 
called trust, which practically controls the market, 
and which has won great wealth for its organizers. 
The ancestor of the Havemeyers was a thrifty Ger- 
man who came to this country in the latter part of 
the eighteenth century, and, after engaging in vari- 
ous pursuits, opened a little sugar refinery in I^ew 
York City, which soon brought him a comfortable 
income. There, in 1804, William Frederick Have- 
meyer was born, and after a careful education, en- 
tered the refinery, gained a thorough knowledge of 
the business and, in 1828 succeeded to it, having as 
a partner his cousin, Frederick Christian Have- 
meyer. These two men developed the business in a 
wonderful manner, installing new machinery, in- 
venting new processes, which reduced the manufac- 
turing cost, acquiring possession of other plants and 
securing government support in the shape of a pro- 
tective tariff, which made a naturally profitable 
business doubly so, and netted its owners many mil- 
lions. 

William Frederick Havemeyer found time, in the 
intervals of running his business, to take a promi- 

301 



A Guide to Biography 

nent part in l^ew York politics. He was mayor of the 
city from 1845 to 1851, and again in 1873, dying 
before the last term was finished. 

As far as possible removed from Havemeyer's 
humdrum existence was that of Phineas Taylor Bar- 
niim, the greatest showman the world has ever seen, 
the originator of the great travelling circus, the ex- 
ploiter of Tom Thumb and Jenny Lind, the owner 
of Jumbo, the most famous elephant that ever lived, 
whose name has passed into the English language as 
a synonym for bigness. 

Barnum was born at Bethel, Connecticut, in 1810. 
His father was an inn-keeper and died when the boy 
was fifteen years old, leaving no property. He tried 
his hand at store-keeping, and failed ; ran a news- 
paper, and was imprisoned for libel, and finally 
reached New York at about the end of his resources 
and looking around for something to do. That was 
in 1834, and by accident he hit upon his real voca- 
tion. 

A man by the name of K. W. Lindsay was exhibit- 
ing through the country an old negro woman named 
Joice Heth, advertising her as being 161 years old, 
and as having been the nurse of George Washington. 
Barnum went to see her and found her an extraordi- 
nary-looking object. He has himself told how he was 
impressed by her. 

" Joice Heth," he says, " was certainly a remark- 
able curiosity, and she looked as though she might 
have been far older than her age as advertised. She 
was a23parently in good health and spirits, but from 

302 



Men of Affairs 

age or disease, or both, was unable to change her 
position; she could move one arm at will, but her 
lower limbs could not be straightened; her left arm 
lay across her breast and she could not remove it; 
the fingers of her left hand were drawn down so as 
nearly to close it, and were fixed; the nails on that 
hand were almost four inches long and extended 
above her wrist; her head was covered with a thick 
bush of gray hair; but she was toothless and totally 
blind, and her eyes had sunk so deeply in the sockets 
as to have disappeared altogether. Nevertheless she 
was pert and sociable and would talk as long as peo- 
ple would converse with her. She was quite garrulous 
about ' dear little George,' at whose birth she de- 
clared she was present, having been at the time a 
slave of Elizabeth Atwood, a half-sister of Augustine 
Washington, the father of George Washington. As 
nurse, she put the first clothes on the infant, and she 
claimed to have raised him." 

Barnum was so impressed by this extraordinary 
object, that he bought her for a thousand dollars, 
putting his last cent into the venture and borrowing 
what he lacked. He proceeded to advertise her with 
characteristic energy, and great crowds thronged to 
see her, so that his receipts sometimes ran as high as 
$1,500 a week. However, the old woman died within 
a year, and a post-mortem examination showed that 
she was really only about eighty years old. 

But Barnum had found his vocation, that of show- 
man, and after a few unsuccessful ventures, bought 
Scudder's American Museum, in New York City, 

303 



A Guide to Biograplij 

and started out on a brilliant career. It is interest- 
ing to note that the museum which Barnum pur- 
chased consisted in part of the curios collected years 
before by Charles and Rembrandt Peale. Barnum 
added to it, was indefatigable in securing curiosities, 
really created the art of modern advertising, and it 
was his proudest boast that no one ever left the mu- 
seum without having got his money's worth. He was 
one of the first to realize that the best possible 
advertisement is a pleased customer, and he tried 
honestly to keep his museum supplied with every 
novelty. The public soon came to appreciate this, 
and perhaps his greatest asset was public confi- 
dence in his promises. People came to believe that 
when Barnum advertised a thing, he really had it. 
But the most fortunate day in all his life was that 
November day of 1842, when he discovered at 
Bridgeport, Connecticut, the midget whose real name 
was Charles S. Stratton, but who was to become 
world-famous as General Tom Thumb. 

The story of Tom Thumb's success reads like a 
romance. He was quite young when Barnum got 
him, and the showman took great pains with his edu- 
cation and training, for he wanted the midget to ap- 
pear a finished man of the world. He became a great 
public favorite, toured America and Europe, was in- 
troduced to kings and princes and made a great for- 
tune for himself and his exhibitor. Barnum struck 
the apogee of his fortunes when he discovered an- 
other midget, Lavinia Warren, who achieved a suc- 
cess scarcely less than Tom Thumb's. Indeed, she 

304 



Men of Affairs 

and the General fell in love with each other and were 
married at Grace Church, and as General and Mrs. 
Tom Thumb were perhaps the greatest drawing cards 
in the world. Another triumph of his career was his 
engagement of Jenny Lind for a series of one hun- 
dred concerts, at a salary of a thousand dollars a 
night, the receipts of the tour being over seven hun- 
dred thousand dollars. 

Barnum had many ups and downs, which he met 
with an invincible optimism. His museum burned 
down and he rebuilt it, but it soon burned down 
again. It was then that the idea occurred to him to 
establish a travelling museum, exhibiting under a 
tent, and it was this idea which developed into " The 
Greatest Show on Earth." It really was the greatest 
and its owner never spared money in his endeavor to 
keep it so. Large-hearted, benevolent, a true enter- 
tainer, he will always occupy a bright place in the 
memory of the American public. 

Perhaps no name in the history of America was 
ever more closely connected in the public mind with 
money-making for its own sake than that of Russell 
Sage. It will be surprising news to many, who knew 
him only as a money-lender on a large scale, that he 
started out on a public career, as alderman, county 
treasurer, and finally as member of congress for two 
terms, from 1853 to 1857. He was the first person 
to advocate, on the floor of congress, the purchase of 
Mount Vernon by the government. His career on 
Wall street began shortly after that, at first in a 

305 



A Guide to Biography 

small way; but before his death, he had developed 
into the greatest individual money-lender in the 
world. 

That was his whole life. He took no part in 
any political or charitable movement; he had no in- 
terest in art, and he lived in the simplest manner. 
He used his wealth, not to procure enjoyment for 
himself or other people, but to procure more wealth. 
He was saving to the point of miserliness ; he got the 
utmost he could out of his money; he never took a 
vacation — and dying, at the age of ninety, left a for- 
tune of many millions. He had no children and the 
whole fortune went to his wife. She at once pro- 
ceeded to bestow it in carefully-considered benevol- 
ences, so that the Sage millions are to benefit human- 
ity, after all. In fact, it is doubtful if any other for- 
tune, amassed by a single man, will, in the end, do 
so much good in the world as will this of Russell 
Sage, for Mrs. Sage is devoting it to what may be 
called scientific charity, which has for its object the 
universal betterment of mankind. 

Mrs. Sage, who thus becomes one of the world's 
great philanthropists, was Margaret Olivia Slocum, 
of Syracuse, New York, and was married to Mr. 
Sage in 1869. She was of a family in only moderate 
circumstances, and was a school teacher previous to 
her marriage. The turn of the wheel made her the 
wealthiest woman in the world, and she proceeded 
without delay to the carrying out of the immense 
benevolent enterprises which she had doubtless long 
meditated. 

306 



Men of Affairs 

The name of Cyrus West Field is so closely asso- 
ciated with his supreme achievement, the laying of 
the first Atlantic cable, that we are apt to forget that 
he was in the beginning a manufacturer and had 
amassed a considerable fortune before his attention 
was called to the possibility of linking Europe to 
America by a telegraph line laid on the bottom of 
the Atlantic. It was under A. T. Stewart that Field 
received his mercantile training, having gone to l^ew 
York in 1834, at the age of fifteen, from his home 
in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and entering Stew- 
art's employ as a clerk. 

He was an apt pupil, and before he was of age, 
owned an establishment of his own for the manufac- 
ture and sale of paper. In this business, in the 
course of a dozen years, he had amassed a fortune so 
considerable that he was able to retire from active 
charge of it, and to spend his time in travel. It was 
in 1853 that the project of carrying a telegraph line 
across the Atlantic ocean suggested itself to him dur- 
ing a conversation with his brother, who was inter- 
ested in building a line across Newfoundland. The 
more he considered and investigated the project, the 
more feasible it seemed, and he proceeded to organ- 
ize the New York, Newfoundland and London Tele- 
graph Company, himself taking one fourth of the 
capital stock, and interesting such other capitalists as 
Peter Cooper, Moses Taylor, Chandler White and 
Marshall Eoberts. 

But the project which had appeared simple enough 
in theory and on paper, proved extremely difficult of 

307 



A Guide to Biography 

execution. If Field could have foreseen the thirteen 
years of constant anxiety which awaited him, he 
would no doubt have hesitated to undertake it. It 
looked, at first, as though success would cro^vn his 
efforts almost at the outset, for in 1858, the laying 
of a cable was completed, and for some days, mes- 
sages were sent from one continent to the other. Then 
the signals began to grow fainter and fainter, until 
they became imperceptible, supposedly from the 
water of the ocean penetrating the cable covering. 

At any rate, the work had to be done all over 
again, with little money on hand, and the coming of 
the Civil War helped to make further progress im- 
possible. Field visited Europe more than twenty 
times in the effort to raise money for the enterprise 
and to keep it before the public, but it was not until 
1865 that another effort to lay the cable could be 
made. The " Great Eastern," the largest ship in the 
world, was secured, and began paying out the cable ; 
but twelve hundred miles from shore the cable 
parted and could not be regained, although every 
effort was made to grapple it. So the vessel had to 
put back to England, and Field was confronted with 
the heart-breaking task of raising even more money. 
He succeeded in doing so, and in 1866, another expe- 
dition started out with a new cable. This time, it 
met with no serious misadventure, and on July 27, 
telegraphic communication was re-established be- 
tween England and America, and has never since 
been interrupted. 

That cable was the first of the hundreds which 
308 



Men of Affairs 

now encircle the globe. Congress presented the bold 
adventurer with a gold medal and the thanks of the 
nation ; John Bright pronounced him " the Colum- 
bus of modern times, who, by his cable, has moored 
the New World alongside of the Old " ; the Paris ex- 
position of 1867 gave him the grand medal, the 
highest prize it had to bestow ; and he received votes 
of thanks and medals and presents from all parts of 
the world. 

In 1884, two other cables were laid across the At- 
lantic by John W. Mackay and James Gordon Ben- 
nett, whose private property they remained, Mackay 
had bad an adventurous career, and was destined to 
be the founder of another of those gi'eat American 
fortunes which are tlie wonder and admiration of 
Europe. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1831, 
his father being another of those sturdy Scotch-Irish 
of whom we have already had occasion to speak. He 
was brought to New York at the age of nine ; but 
his father died a short time thereafter and the boy 
was thrown practically upon his own resources. 

When gold was discovered in California in 1849, 
Mackay joined the crowd that rushed to the new El 
Dorado, and for several yefers, he lived a typical 
miner's life, roughing it in the camps, but gaining 
little except a thorough knowledge of mining. In 
1860, some guiding spirit led him eastward to 
Nevada; his fortunes there steadily improved, until 
he became one of the leading men in the settlement, 
and in 1872, he made one of the most famous and 
romantic discoveries in mining history, that of the 

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A Guide to Biography 

famous Comstock lode, on a ledge of rock high in the 
Sierras, under which Virginia City now nestles. So 
rich in silver was this great ledge of rock and its 
enormous production added so greatly to the world's 
supply of silver that the market price fell to a point 
where such countries as India and China, whose cur- 
rency was on a silver basis, were seriously embar- 
rassed to maintain values. From one mine alone over 
$150,000,000 was taken out, Mackay devoted him- 
self personally to the superintendence of the mines, 
working in the lower levels with his men, who idolized 
him. 

Let us turn for a moment to the career of another 
great fortune-builder, the man who was, perhaps, the 
greatest freebooter the American financial world ever 
saw, who made his money by destroying rather than 
building up, and whose wealth finally killed him — 
Jay Gould. Let us see if we can get some sort of 
idea of the personality of this extraordinary man. 

Born in 1836, a farmer's boy, with only such edu- 
cation as he could pick up, he managed to find time 
to study surveying, and for two or three years was 
engaged in making surveys of various New York 
counties. While thus engaged, he fell in with a 
wealthy and eccentric individual named Zadock 
Pratt, who sent him to the western part of the state 
to select a site for a tannery. He was soon doing a 
large lumbering business, first with Pratt and then 
in his own name; but he sold out just before the 
panic of 1857, and soon after entered upon that ca- 

310 



Men of Affairs 

reer of speculation in I^ew York City which, in the 
end, made him the best-hated man in America. 

Picture the man, small, only five feet six inches 
in height, with sallow skin and jet black whiskers, 
his eyes dark and piercing, his whole personality, as 
one observer put it, " reminiscent of the spider." 
His reputation was that of an unscrupulous and im- 
moral rascal, who would not hesitate to sacrifice his 
best friends, if need be. His war against Cornelius 
Vanderbilt for control of the Erie was one of his 
typical operations — a war which, when he saw he 
was losing, he won by issuing $5,000,000 worth of 
fraudulent stock. There was never any question 
about the criminality of this proceeding, and Gould 
was forced to flee to New Jersey, where he spent 
millions in corrupting courts and legislatures — mil- 
lions, not taken from his own pocket, but from the 
treasury of the Erie, of which he had control. He 
was ousted, at last, but not until he had added $62,- 
000,000 to the indebtedness of the road, of which 
amount it was asserted Gould had pocketed $12,- 
000,000. 

The culminating feature of his career was his 
attempt to corner gold, which brought about the fa- 
mous Black Friday panic of 1869. The scheme, one 
of the most daring ever attempted by any operator, 
came near success. Gould is said to have bribed the 
brother-in-law of President Grant and to have per- 
suaded the President himself not to release any of 
the government supply of gold. He then succeeded 
in driving the price up to 162^, when suddenly the 

311 



A Guide to Biography 

bubble burst. Gould, himself, had been warned and 
succeeded in getting away with his immense profits, 
covering himself at the expense of his associates, an 
act of treachery unprecedented even in the stock 
market. 

These were only two of the remarkable operations 
which he engineered, and which need not be given in 
detail here. The net result was a fortune of some 
seventy million dollars, and a reputation for duplic- 
ity such as perhaps no man in America ever had be- 
fore. It is only fair to Gould to say, however, that 
he accomplished merely what most stock gamblers 
would like to accomplish, if they could, and that out- 
side of finance, he seems to have been an estimable 
man, faithful to his wife, devoted to his children, 
and passionately fond of flowers. He made no gifts 
of any consequence to charity during his life, nor 
did he make a single benevolent bequest in his will ; 
but one of his children, Helen Miller Gould, has 
more than atoned for this by practically devoting her 
life and her fortune to charitable work. It is doubt- 
ful if there is a better-loved woman in America to- 
day than Helen Gould, who has shown so notably 
how a life may be consecrated to good works. 

The great marble palace which A. T. Stewart 
built on Broadway, in New York City, to house his 
business, and which was, at the time, tlie largest 
building in the world devoted to a retail business, 
is now occupied by another great merchant, who, 
starting from a beginning even smaller than Stew- 

312 



Men of Affairs 

art's, has built up a business many times as great. 
John Wanamaker, whatever the growth of the coun- 
try may be hereafter, will always remain one of 
America's most representative and most successful 
men of affairs — both representative and successful 
because his business has rested from the first on the 
principle of honest dealing, of making satisfied cus- 
tomers — in a word, upon the altogether modern 
principle of " your money back, if you want it." 

John Wanamaker was born in Philadelphia in 
1838, a poor boy with his way to make in the world. 
He received his education in the common schools, 
and at the age of fourteen, entered upon his business 
career as an errand boy in a book store. From that, 
he got a clerkship in a clothing store, and for some 
years acted as salesman, until he could save enough 
money to start a little store of his own. This he was 
able to do in 1861, in partnership with a man named 
Nathan Brown, and ten years later, he was sole 
owner of a prosperous and growing business. It was 
at about this time that an idea occurred to him which 
was destined to revolutionize the retail business of 
the larger cities of the country. 

The idea was simply this : In the great cities, 
most shoppers have to travel a considerable distance 
to get to the business centre, and must there waste 
time and energy going from one store to another to 
make their purchases. Why not, then, combine all 
the representative retail businesses into one store, so 
that the shopper could make all purchases under a 
single roof, pay for them all at once, and have them 

313 



A Guide to Biography 

all delivered at the same time ? Moreover, why 
could not one great business be conducted more 
cheaply, and so undersell, the small ones, since a 
single executive staff would do for it, rent, delivery 
cost, and a hundred other fixed charges would be 
reduced, to say nothing of the advantages of large 
buying, and the advertising which every department 
would get from all the rest? The idea grew into a 
carefully-formulated plan, and 1876 saw the start 
of the great Wanamaker department store, perhaps 
the most famous retail business in the world. 

Its tremendous success is an old story now, and it 
has found hundreds of imitators. Twenty years af- 
ter the opening of the Philadelphia store, another 
was opened in JSTew York in the old Stewart build- 
ing, to which another building, four times as large, 
has recently been added. Wanamaker from the first 
firmly believed in P. T. Barnum's old adage that 
" A satisfied customer is the best advertisement," 
and he made every effort to see that none left the 
Wanamaker stores unsatisfied. He also made it a 
rule that no visitor to his store should ever be urged 
to buy anything; that every article of merchandise 
should be exactly as represented, and that any pur- 
chase might be returned and the purchase money 
would be refunded without question. As a result, 
Wanamaker got a reputation for fair dealing which 
proved his greatest asset. 

One would think that the management of such a 
business would fully occupy any man, but Wana- 
maker found time for many public and benevolent 

314 




WANAMAKER 



Men of Affairs 

interests. He founded, in 1858, the Bethany Sun- 
day School, which has grown into perhaps the 
largest in the world and of which he has always been 
superintendent; he has taken part in many move- 
ments for civic reform, and from 1889 to 1893 was 
postmaster general of the United States. He reor- 
ganized the service; set in motion the rural delivery 
system, the greatest single improvement in its serv- 
ice the department has ever made; and tried to se- 
cure a postal telegraph, a postal savings-bank, a par- 
cels post and one-cent letter postage. He was the 
first official to regard the service as a business pure 
and simple, and if the reforms he suggested had been 
carried out, the United States postoffice would now 
be a model for the world. 

The greatest banker and financier in America at 
the present day is undoubtedly J. Pierpont Morgan, 
who, however, is known not so well for the millions 
he has accumulated as for the other millions he has 
spent in collecting rare objects of art, until he has 
become the possessor of a collection surpassing any 
ever possessed by another private individual. That 
much of this will one day be bequeathed by its owner 
to the public there can be little doubt. 

J. Pierpont Morgan is of a family of bankers. 
His father, Junius Spencer Morgan, was for many 
years a partner in the great London banking house 
of George Peabody & Co., and on the retirement of 
Mr. Peabody, succeeded him as the head of the busi- 
ness. There was never any doubt of the son's voca- 

315 



A Guide to Biography 

tion. Born in 1837, and carefully educated, he 
entered the banking house of Duncan, Sherman & 
Co. at the age of twenty, and from that time, rose 
steadily, until he became the head of the greatest 
banking house in the country. He has been largely 
concerned in the reorganization of railways and the 
consolidation of industrial properties, and the mag- 
nitude of some of his operations is fairly astounding. 
During the Cleveland administration, he floated a 
national bond issue of $62,000,000 ; he marketed the 
securities of the United States Steel Corporation, with 
a capitalization of $1,100,000,000; he secured Amer- 
ican subscriptions aggregating $50,000,000 for the 
British war loan of 1901 ; he controls over fifty thou- 
sand miles of railway, and his interests extend into 
practically every great financial enterprise in Amer- 
ica. He has given large sums of money for public 
enterprises in Xew York City, among them a million 
and a half for a great lying-in hospital. He built 
the " Columbia," which twice defeated the " Sham- 
rock " in the races for the America's cup, and he has 
made many valuable gifts to the various museums 
and libraries of New York City. The power he 
wields is enormous, but he wields it wisely and legit- 
imately, winning the respect, as well as the admira- 
tion of men. 

The greatest work of American men of affairs 
during the past half century has been the upbuilding 
and extension of tlie railroad system of the country. 
The railroad mileage of the United States at the 

316 



Men of Affairs 

present time is over three hundred and twenty-five 
thousand ; the total cost of the railroad equipment of 
the country reaches fourteen billion dollars and the 
yearly earnings average over two and a half billions. 
They employ over a million and a half men, whose 
wages average three million dollars a day — and, it 
may be added, they kill or injure nearly ninety thou- 
sand. But that is a detail. With this vast develop- 
ment of the railroad business the names of some half 
dozen men are so closely connected that the great 
systems of the country are generally known as the 
Hill lines, the Harriman lines, the Vanderbilt lines, 
the Gould lines, and so on. Of these men we shall try 
to tell something briefly here. 

We have already related how Cornelius Vander- 
bilt secured control of the New York Central and 
Hudson River roads, and added to these until he had 
secured an entrance into Chicago; and how his son, 
William Henry Vanderbilt, added to this system un- 
til it became, and still remains, one of the strong- 
est in the country. We have told, too, of Jay Gould's 
ideas of railroad management, which seem to have 
been to get the most out of it for Jay Gould. But 
when Jay Gould died, he was caught, as it were, with 
thousands of miles of railroads on his hands. He 
left four sons, George Gould, Edwin Gould, Howard 
Gould and Frank Gould, of whom George is the only 
one that really counts. But he, with a real genius 
for railroad building, has developed the Gould lines 
into a great system stretching from Buffalo and 
Pittsburgh southwestward to Chicago, Omaha, Kan- 

317 



A Guide to Biography 

sas City, Denver, Ogden, St. Louis, New Orleans, 
Galveston and away out to El Paso. These lines 
have played a most important part in the develop- 
ment of the great Southwest, and it is said that 
George Gonld is already blazing a way to the At- 
lantic seaboard, as an outlet for the mighty freight 
traflic which his lines control. 

ISTo man connected with railroad building in this 
country has had a more interesting or adventurous 
career than James J. Hill. Born on a little Cana- 
dian farm in 1838, descended from the hardy Scotch- 
Irish of whom we have spoken so often, his father 
died when he was fifteen years, and he was left to 
his own resources. He found work as a wood-chop- 
per, and one day, while he was chopping down a tree 
a traveler stopped at the house to take dinner, hitch- 
ing his horse to the gate. The boy noticed that it 
was tired and fagged and carried it a bucket of 
water. This attention pleased the traveler, and as he 
drove away, tossed the boy a Minnesota newspaper, 
remarking, " Go out there, young man. That country 
needs youngsters of your spirit." 

The boy read the paper with its glowing accounts 
of the new country, and the next morning, walking 
to the tree he had been cutting he hit it one last 
lick for luck, and announced, " I've chopped my last 
tree." That tree, it is said, bears to-day a great pla- 
card with the words, " The last tree chopped by 
James J. Hill." It was the last one, for a day or two 
later the boy started for St. Paul. lie brought with 
him to the United States the lusty body, frugal 

318 



Men of Affairs 

instincts and good principles of his Scotch-Irish 
ancestry, and, in addition to those, a self-confidence 
and sureness of judgment destined to take him far. 

He got employment as a shipping clerk in a steam- 
boat office in St. Paul, and so took his first lessons 
in transportation problems. Pretty soon he was 
agent for a steamboat line, then he established a fuel 
and transportation business on his own account and 
managed it so well that by 1873, he had accumulated 
a fortune of a hundred thousand dollars. There was 
in Minnesota at the time a little railroad called the 
St. Paul & Pacific. It started at St, Paul, but it 
stopped after it had got only a few hundred miles 
toward the Pacific. Hill decided to buy it. The 
l~)rice was half a million, so he tramped back to Can- 
ada and persuaded the bank of Montreal to let him 
have the $400,000 he needed. That was surely one 
of the most wonderful feats of a wonderful career. 
The directors of the bank were severely criticised ; 
men laughed at his purchase, pointing out that the 
road had never paid, and prophesying that it never 
would pay. 

Yet that Jim Crow road was the foundation of the 
Great Northern system, the Hill line, stretching 
across Dakota and Montana to Puget Sound. Every 
man who went into the enterprise with Hill now 
owns his stock in it as a free gift, for in the inter- 
vening years, the cost has been returned to him in 
the shape of dividends and bonuses. It has never 
failed to pay regular dividends, and has, perhaps, 
won public confidence more surely than any other 

319 



A Guide to Biography 

in the country. Eor James J. Hill has kept faith 
in the smallest detail with every man who ever 
entrusted a dollar to his hands. The loyalty of the 
employes of the Great iNTorthern has passed into a 
proverb, " Once a Hill man, always a Hill man," 
and it is true. He knows his road as few other men 
do. Before he bought the St. Paul & Pacific, he trav- 
eled over the route in an ox-cart, studying not only 
the road, but the people along the way — there weren't 
many — and the resources of the country. Before he 
extended his line to the Pacific, he went the whole 
distance on foot and horseback. 

People laughed at him when he announced that 
he was going to extend his line to the Pacific. No 
line had ever been built across the continent without 
a great subsidy from the government — to secure a 
subsidy was always the first step; besides, it was be- 
lieved that the country through which the Great Nor- 
thern was to extend would not even grow wheat, and 
the new road was promptly dubbed " Hill's Folly." 
But in 1893, his line reached the Pacific. A few 
years later, the owners of the great Northern Pacific 
were begging him to manage that road, too. For he 
had created business for his road — a great market in 
the Orient to fill his west-bound freight cars, and a 
great market in the eastern United States for Puget 
Sound lumber to fill his east-bound cars. For re- 
member no railroad can make money imless, after 
it has hauled a loaded car from one end of the line 
to the other, it can find another load to put in that 
same car to haul back again. Hill supplied the busi- 

320 



Men of Affairs 

ness and his story is the wonderful story of the de- 
velopment of the Great Northwest. 

Which brings us to the Napoleon of the railroad 
world, E. H. Harriman. America has never seen an- 
other quite like him. When the panic of 1901 was at 
its height and the financial world seemed trembling 
in ruins about his head, he refused to break the 
corner, as he might have done, but sat watching the 
tape, cool, quiet and calculating, while men failed, 
banks tottered, and his own associates begged him to 
yield. For the ambition of this man knew no limi- 
tation. His kingdom must stretch from sea to sea 
and from the lakes to the gulf. 

His kingdom lay to the south of Hill's, for he 
ruled the Union Pacific, and between the two men 
there was ceaseless war. Physically and mentally 
they were as far apart as two men could be. Hill is a 
large man, with massive head and brow, and his eyes 
are steady and cool and brown, his lips full and sen- 
sitive, his whole personality bespeaking force and de- 
cision. Quite different was Harriman; a small, ordi- 
nary looking man, with glasses and a scraggy mus- 
tache, giving the impression of nervous force rather 
than of power ; an irritable man, easily angered ; a 
fighter clear through, but fighting sometimes when 
peace were wiser — that was Harriman. 

Harriman was born at Hempstead, Long Island, 
the son of a clergyman with a large family and a 
small income. The boy was renowned chiefly for his 
daily fights and for his aversion to study. At the 

321 



A Guide to Biography 

age of fourteen, he was put to work in a broker's 
office in Wall street, at eighteen he had a partner- 
ship, at twenty-two he bought a seat on the stock 
exchange, and pretty soon entered the railroad field 
by getting control of the Illinois Central. He at 
once inaugurated a new policy. Before that time, 
the prevailing idea of railroad management was to 
run a road as cheaply as possible and pay big divi- 
dends. Harriman's idea was that the biggest divi- 
dends would be secured in the end by making a good 
road, and he proceeded to carry the idea out by put- 
ting his road in the very pink of condition. And it 
paid. 

That was the beginning. His great coup was the 
rebuilding of the Union Pacific. A railroad with 
7,500 miles of track, a giant crushed by its own 
weight, it had gone into a receivership in the panic of 
1893. For five years it stayed there, despite the ut- 
most efforts of the giants of finance to lift it out. 
Then Harriman got possession of it, and taking an 
engine and a car, turned the train backward and, 
running in the day time only, went over the road 
mile by mile. He decided that the road must be 
made a good road, and he told his executive commit- 
tee that he needed for his immediate necessities one 
hundred millions of dollars ! 

Well, he got the money and he got good men and 
went to work. The result was soon apparent. Earn- 
ings grew, business increased, and the company's 
credit improved. Never before in the history of rail- 
roading had there been such daring rebuilding. The 

322 



Men of Affairs 

line was levelled down to a maximum grade of forty- 
one feet to a mile ; two hundred and forty-seven feet 
were scaled off the top of the Great Divide ; millions 
of cubic yards of dirt and stone were blasted out 
and moved; tunnels were drilled; and, finally, when 
the Southern Pacific, too, was acquired, a trestle 
twenty-three miles long was built across Great Salt 
Lake, through water thirty feet deep, taking rail- 
road trains farther from land than they had ever yet 
been run, and shortening the road forty-four miles. 
And the result? The gross earnings have risen to 
over $170,000,000 a year, and $28,000,000 a year 
are distributed in dividends. Truly a transforma- 
tion from the old water-logged road which Harriman 
took over. 

He had his reverses — he attempted to get hold 
of the Northern Pacific, but it slipped through his 
fingers; the Burlington was cut out from under his 
guns, and so was the Rock Island. James J. Hill 
outgeneraled him more than once, and he was never 
able to " get back " at Hill effectively. 

With Harriman we shall close this chapter on men 
of affairs. Many others might have been noted. In 
fact, none of the great industries of the country has 
been built up except by inspired work. Armour and 
Cudahy and Swift made the packing business ; Mar- 
shall Field built up a business in Chicago rivalling 
Wanamaker's ; August Belmont, William C. Whit- 
ney, Levi Leiter, Robert Goelet, Pierre Lorillard, 
and a hundred others, amassed great fortunes. Yet 
there was nothing in their career different to those 

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A Guide to Biography 

of the men already considered in this chapter. They 
had a genius for money-making. Each in some spe- 
cial field ; but, beyond that, they did few memorable 
things. And so we need not pause longer over them 
here, except to remark that it is, in the main, to such 
men as these, that America owes her great material 
prosperity. 

SUMMARY 

Morris, Robert. Born at Liverpool, England, Jan- 
uary 20, 1734; came to America, 1747, and settled at 
Philadelphia; delegate to Continental Congress, 1775- 
78; gave his credit to assist in financing Revolution 
and elected superintendent of finance, 1781; organized 
Bank of North America, 1781; member of Constitu- 
tional Convention, 1787; United States senator, 1789- 
95 ; died in debtor's prison at Philadelphia, May 8, 
1806. 

AsTOE, John Jacob. Born at Waldorf, Germany, 
July 17, 1763; came to America, 1783, and settled at 
New York City; founded Astoria, at mouth of Colum- 
bia River, 1811; died at New York City, March 29, 
1848. 

Vanderbilt, Cornelius. Born near Stapleton, 
Staten Island, New York, May 27, 1794; became chief 
owner Harlem railroad, 1863, and of Hudson River and 
New York Central roads soon afterwards; died at New 
York City, January 4, 1877. 

Stewart, Alexander Turney. Born near Belfast, 
Ireland, October 12, 1803; came to America, 1823, and 
established drygoods business at New York City; died 
there April 10, 1876. 

324 



Men of Affairs 

Barnum, Phineas Taylor. Born at Bethel, Con- 
necticut, July 5, 1810; opened Barnum's Museum in 
New York City, 1841 ; managed Jenny Lind's concert 
tour, 1850-51 ; established " Greatest Show on Earth," 
1871; died at Bridgeport, Connecticut, April 7, 1891., 

Sage, Eussell, Born in Oneida County, New York, 
August 4, 1816; member of Congress, 1853-57; estab- 
lished himself as broker and money-lender in New York 
City, 1863; died there, July 22, 1906. 

Field, Cyrus West. Born at Stockbridge, Massa- 
chusetts, November 30, 1819; in paper business in New 
York, 1840-53, retiring with a fortune; organized New 
York, Newfoundland & London Telegraph Company, 
1854; Atlantic Telegraph Company, 1856; laid Atlan- 
tic cable, 1866; first message over it, July 29; died at 
New York City, July 12, 1892. 

Mackay, John William. Born at Dublin, Ireland, 
November 28, 1831 ; came with parents to America, 
1840; went to California, 1850; discovered Bonanza 
mines, 1872 ; died, July 20, 1902. 

Gould, Jay. Born at Roxbury, New York, May 27, 
1836; established himself as broker in New York City, 
1859; notorious for manipulations of various railroad 
and other securities, and for " Black Friday " ; died at 
New York City, December 2, 1892. 

Wanamaker, John. Born at Philadelphia, July 11, 
1838; established clothing house of Wanamaker & 
Brown, 1861 ; established department store in Phila- 
delphia, 1876, and in New York City, 1896 ; Postmas- 
ter-General, 1889-93; founded Bethany Sunday School, 
1858; president Philadelphia Y. M. C. A., 1870-83. 

325 



A Guide to Biography 

Morgan, John Pierpont. Born at Hartford, Con- 
necticut, April 17, 1837; entered banking business, 
1857, and developed present firm of J. P. Morgan & 
Co., largest private bankers of the United States. 

Hill, James J. Born near Guelph, Ontario, Sep- 
tember 16, 1838; removed to Minnesota, 1856; entered 
transportation business; general manager St. Paul, 
Minneapolis & Manitoba By. Co., 1879-82; president 
since 1883 ; built Great Northern, with steamship con- 
nection witli Japan and China, 1883-93; president of 
Great Northern system since 1893. 

Harriman, Edward Henry. Born at Hempstead, 
Long Island; entered Wall Street as clerk at age of 
fourteen; entered New York Stock Exchange eight 
years later; was president and chairman of the board 
of directors of the Union Pacific, Oregon Short Line, 
Southern Pacific, Texas & New Orleans, and many 
other great railway systems; died near New York City, 
September 9, 1909. 



326 



CHAPTER X 

INVENTORS 

IT is a curious fact that the men to whom the 
world owes most generally get the least reward. 
The genius in art or letters is seldom recognized as 
such until long after he himself has passed away — 
his life is usually embittered by derision or neglect. 
But, in the history of civilization, the lot of no man 
has been harder or more thankless than that of the 
inventor. Poverty and want have always been his 
portion, and even after he had won his triumph, had 
compelled public recognition of some great invention, 
it was usually some one else who won the reward. 

America has been especially strong in the field of 
invention. Indeed, practically all the great labor- 
saving devices of the past century and more have 
originated here. " Yankee ingenuity " has passed 
into a proverb, and a true one, for the country which 
has produced the steamboat, the cotton gin, the sew- 
ing machine, the electric telegraph, the phonograph, 
the telephone, the typewriter, the reaper and binder, 
to mention only a few of the achievements of Amer- 
ican inventors, may surely claim first place in this 
respect among the nations of the world. There are 
few stories more inspiring than that of American in- 

327 



A Guide to Biography 

vention, and as benefactors to their race, the long line 
of American inventors may rightly rank before even 
the great philanthropists whose careers are outlined 
elsewhere in this volume. Indeed, if we judge great- 
ness by the benefits which a man confers upon man- 
kind, such men as Whitney and Howe and Morse and 
Bell and Edison far surpass most of the great char- 
acters of history. 

First of the line is Benjamin Franklin, whose 
many-sided genius gives him a unique place in 
American history. His career has been considered 
in the chapter dealing with our statesmen, but let us 
pause for a moment here to speak of his inventions. 
One of them, the Franklin stove, is still in use in 
hundreds of old houses, and as an economizer of 
fuel has never been surpassed ; another was the light- 
ning-rod. He introduced the basket willow, the 
water-tight compartment for ships, the culture of 
silk, the use of white clothing in hot weather, and 
the use of oil to quiet a tempest-tossed sea. From 
none of his inventions did he seek to get any return. 
The Governor of Pennsylvania offered to give him a 
monopoly of the sale of the Franklin stove for a 
period of years, but he declined it, saying, " That, 
as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of 
others, we should be glad to serve others by any in- 
vention of ours " — a principle characteristic of 
Franklin's whole philosophy of life. 

After Franklin, came Robert Fulton, the first man 
successfully to apply the power of the steam-engine 
to the propulsion of boats. Everyone has heard the 

328 



Inventors 

story of liow, years before, the youthful James Watt 
first got his idea of the power of steam by noticing 
how it rattled the lid on his mother's boiling tea- 
kettle. From that came the stationary engine, and 
from that the engine as applied to the locomotive. It 
remained for Fulton to apply it to water navigation. 

Born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, of Irish 
parents, in poor circumstances, the boy received only 
the rudiments of an education, but developed a sur- 
prising talent for painting, so that, when he was 
seventeen, he removed to Philadelphia and set up 
there as an artist, painting portraits and landscapes. 
He remained there for some years, and finally, hav- 
ing made enough money to purchase a small farm for 
his mother, sailed for London, where he introduced 
himself to that amiable patron of all American paint- 
ers, Benjamin West. West, who was at that time at 
the height of his fame, received Fulton with great 
kindness, and made a place in his house for him, 
where he remained for several years. 

Those years were not devoted exclusively to paint- 
ing, for Fulton had developed an interest in mechan- 
ics, secured a patent for an improvement in canal 
locks, invented a " plunging " boat, a kind of sub- 
marine, a machine for spinning flax, one for making 
ropes, one for sawing marble, and many others of 
minor importance. Finally abandoning art alto- 
gether, he went to Paris, where he spent seven years 
with the family of Joel Barlow, conducting with him 
a number of experiments ; one series of which has 
developed into the modern submarine torpedo. He 

329 



A Guide to Biography 

succeeded in interesting the French government in 
his submarine experiments and constructed a boat 
equipped with a small engine, with which, in the 
harbor of Brest, he seems actually to have made some 
progress under water, remaining under on one occa- 
sion for more than four hours. But the French gov- 
ernment finally withdrew its support, and finding 
the British government also indifferent, Fulton 
sailed for Kew York in December, 1806. 

Here, he succeeded in interesting the United 
States government, which granted him $5,000 to 
continue his submarine experiments, but interest in 
them soon waned, and Fulton turned his whole at- 
tention to the subject of steam navigation. He had 
been experimenting in this direction for a number 
of years, and, in conjunction with Chancellor Liv- 
ingston, of 'New Jersey, had secured from the legis- 
lature of New York the exclusive right and privilege 
of navigating all kinds of boats which might be pro- 
pelled by the force of fire or steam on all the waters 
within the territory of New York for a period of 
twenty years, provided he would, by the end of 1807, 
produce a boat that would attain a speed of four miles 
an hour. Fulton went to work at once, the experi- 
ments being paid for by Livingston, and after vari- 
ous calculations, discarded the use of paddles or oars, 
of ducks' feet which open as they are pushed out and 
close as they are drawn in, and also the idea of forc- 
ing water out of the stern of the vessel. He finally 
decided on the paddle-wheel, and, in August, 1807, 
the first American steamboat appeared on the East 

330 



Inventors 

Kiver. A great concourse witnessed the first trial, 
incredulous at first, but converted into enthusiastic 
believers before the boat had gone a quarter of 
a mile. 

She was christened the " Clermont," and soon after- 
wards made a trip up the Hudson to Albany, to the 
astonishment of the people living along the banks of 
that mighty river. The distance of 150 miles, against 
the current of the river, was covered in thirty-two 
hours, and there could no longer be any question of 
Fulton's success. A regular schedule between Albany 
and jSTew York was established, and the " Clermont " 
began that great river traffic now carried on by the 
most palatial river steamers in the world. 

After that, it was merely a question of develop- 
ment. More boats were built, improvements were 
made, and every year witnessed an increase of speed 
and efficiency. In 1814, in the midst of the second 
war with England, Fulton built the first steam ship- 
of-war the world had ever seen, designed for the de- 
fense of New York harbor. This ancestor of the 
modern " Dreadnought " was named " Fulton the 
First " in honor of her designer. She indirectly 
caused his death, for, exposing himself for several 
hours of a bitter winter day, in supervising some 
changes on her, he developed pneumonia and died a 
few days later. Could he re-visit the world to-day 
and see the wonderful and mighty ships which have 
grown out of his idea, he would no doubt be as aston- 
ished as were the people along the Hudson on that 
fall day in 1807 when they saw the " Clermont " 

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A Guide to Biography 

making her way up the stream against wind and 
tide. 

The same year that Robert Fulton was born, an- 
other inventive genius first saw the light in the little 
town of Westborough, Massachusetts. His name was 
Eli Whitney, and the work he was to do revolution- 
ized the industrial development of the South, paid 
off its debts, and trebled the value of its lands. It 
did something else, too, which was to fasten upon 
the South the system of negro slavery, resulting in 
the Civil War. But though he added hundreds of 
millions of dollars to the wealth of his country, his 
own reward was neglect, indifference, countless law- 
suits and endless vexation of body and spirit. 

Whitney's father ran a little wood-working shop 
where he made wheels and chairs, and there the boy 
spent every possible hour. At the age of twelve, he 
made himself a violin, and his progress was so 
steady, that by the time he was sixteen, he had 
greatly enlarged the business and had gained the re- 
putation of being the best mechanic in all the country 
round. He soon discovered the value of education, 
and managed to prepare himself for Yale College, 
which he entered in 1789, at the age of twenty-four 
— an age at which most men had long since gradu- 
ated and settled in life. But Whitney persevered, 
graduating in 1792, and almost immediately secur- 
ing a position as private tutor in a Georgia family, 
which was to change the whole course of his life. 

Until he reached the South, he had never seen raw 
cotton, only a little of which, indeed, had been raised 

332 



Inventors 

in the United States, It had not been profitable be- 
cause of the difficulty of picking out the green cotton- 
seed. To separate one pound of the staple from the 
seed was a day's work, so that cotton was considered 
rather as a curiosity than as a profitable crop. Whit- 
ney was impressed by the possibilities of cotton cul- 
ture, could this obstacle be overcome, and devoted 
his spare time to the construction of the machine 
upon which his fame rests. At last it was done, and 
did its work so perfectly that there could be no ques- 
tion of its success. Experiments showed that with it, 
one man, with the aid of two-horse power, could 
clean five thousand pounds of cotton a day! 

A patent was at once applied for and every effort 
made to keep the invention a secret until a patent 
had been secured. But knowledge of it swept through 
the state, and great crowds of people came to see the 
machine. Whitney refused to show it, and after 
much excitement, a mob one night broke into the 
building where it was, and carried it away. Others 
were at once made, using it as a model, and by the 
time Whitney had secured his patent, they were in 
successful operation in many parts of the state. 

That was the beginning of Whitney's trials. He 
had not enough money to produce machines rapidly 
enough to meet the tremendous demand for them, 
and various rivals sprang up, some of them even 
claiming the honor of the invention. Other gins 
were put on the market, differing from Whitney's 
only in some unimportant detail, and plainly an in- 
fringement of his patent ; but he had not the means 

333 



A Guide to Biography 

to prosecute their manufacturers. The result was, 
that after two years of disheartening struggle, Whit- 
ney was reduced to bankruptcy. 

The attitude of the South toward him caused him 
especial distress. " I have invented a machine," he 
wrote, " from which the citizens of the South have 
already realized immense profits, which is worth to 
them millions, and from which they must continue 
to derive the most important profits, and in return to 
be treated as a felon, a swindler, and a villain, has 
stung me to the very soul. And when I consider that 
this cruel persecution is inflicted by the very persons 
who are enjoying these great benefits, and expressly 
for the purpose of preventing my ever deriving the 
least advantage from my labors, the acuteness of my 
feelings is altogether inexpressible." 

Finally, the states of North and South Carolina 
voted him a royalty upon all the machines in use, 
and this enabled him to pay his debts; but Whitney 
at last abandoned hope of ever receiving from his 
invention the returns he had hoped for, and, turn- 
ing his attention to other business, received, in 1798, 
a contract from the United States government for 
10,000 stand of arms. Eight years were consumed 
in filling this contract. A contract for 30,000 stand 
followed, and so many improvements in design and 
process of manufacture were made by Whitney that 
no other manufacturer could compete with him. 

The result of all this was that Whitney was en- 
abled to end his life in comparative independence. 
His last days were his happiest, and he found in 

334 



Inventors 

the care and affection of a loving family some con- 
solation for the injustice and ingratitude which he 
had suffered. 

Sixteen years after the battle of Bunker Hill, a 
boy was born in a great frame house at the foot of 
Breed's Hill, upon which that famous and misnamed 
battle was really fought. The boy's father was a 
preacher named Jedediah Morse, and the boy was 
named Samuel Finley, after his maternal great grand- 
father, the renowned president of Princeton College, 
and Breese, after his mother's maiden name, so that 
he comes down through history as S. F. B. Morse. 
He received a thorough schooling, graduating from 
Yale in 1807, and at once turned his attention to 
art. We have already spoken of his achievements in 
that respect, which were really of the first import- 
ance. He was an artist, heart and soul, but the 
whole course of his life was to be changed in a re- 
markable fashion. 

In the autumn of 1832, Morse, being at that time 
forty-one years of age, sailed from Havre for New 
York in the ship Sully. It happened that there were 
on board some scientists who had been interested in 
electrical development, and the talk one evening- 
turned on electricity. Morse knew little about it, 
except what he had learned in a few lectures heard at 
Yale ; but when somebody asked how long it took a 
current of electricity to pass through a wire, and 
when the answer was that the passage was instantane- 
ous, his interest was aroused. 

335 



A Guide to Biography 

" If that is the case," he said, " and if the passage 
of the ciirrent can be made visible or audible, there is 
no reason why intelligence cannot be transmitted in- 
stantaneously by electricity." 

The company broke up, after a while, but Morse, 
filled with his great idea^ went on deck, and at the 
end of an hour had jotted down in his notebook the 
first skeleton of the " Morse alphabet." Before he 
reached New York, he had made drawings and speci- 
fications of his invention, which he seems to have 
grasped clearly and completely from the first, al- 
though its details were worked out only by laborious 
thought. It was necessary for him to earn a living, 
and not until three years later was the first rude 
instrument completed. Two years more, and he had 
a short line in operation, but it was looked upon as a 
scientific toy constructed by an unfortunate dreamer, 
Finally, in 1838, Morse appeared before Congress, 
exhibited his invention and asked aid to construct 
an experimental line between Washington and Balti- 
more. He was laughed at, and for twelve years an 
extraordinary struggle ensued, Morse laboring to 
convince the world of the value of his invention, and 
the world scoffing at him. His own situation was 
forlorn in the extreme ; for his painting was his only 
means of livelihood, and, absorbed as he was by his 
great invention, he found painting utterly impossible. 
His home was a single room in the fifth story of a 
building at the corner of IsTassau and Beekman 
streets in 'New York City — a room which served as 
studio, workshop, parlor, kitchen and bedroom. There 

336 



,,,#l<4if'' ''>' 




MORSE 



Inventors 

he labored and slept, using such money as he could 
earn for his experiments, and almost starving him- 
self in consequence. 

But at last the tide turned. He was appointed to a 
position in the University of the City of New York, 
which provided him with better means for experi- 
ment, and in 1843, again appeared before Congress. 
This time, he found some backers, and by a close 
vote, at the last hour of the session, an appropria- 
tion of $30,000 was made to enable him to construct 
a line between Washington and Baltimore. Wild 
with delight and enthusiasm, the inventor went to 
work, and on the twenty-fourth day of May, 1844, 
the first message flashed over the wire, " What hath 
God wrought! " 

The wonder and amazement of the public can be 
better imagined than described. Morse offered to 
sell his invention to the government for the sum of 
$100,000, but the Postmaster General, a thick- 
headed individual named Cave Johnson, refused the 
offer, stating that in his opinion, no line would ever 
pay for the cost of operation ! 

It was inevitable that rival claimants for the honor 
of the invention sliould crop up on every side, but, 
after years of bitter litigation, Morse succeeded in 
defending his title, and honors began to pour in upon ,■ 
him. It is worth remarking that the Sultan of Tur-^ 
key, supposedly the most benighted of all rulers, was 
the first monarch to acknowledge Morse as a public 
benefactor. That was in 1848 ; but the monarchs 
of Europe soon followed, and in 1858, a special con- 

337 



A Guide to Biography 

gress was called by the Emperor of the French to 
devise some suitable testimonial to the great inven- 
tor. But perhaps the most fitting testimonial of all 
were the ceremonies at the unveiling of the Morse 
monument in New York City in 1871. Delegates 
were present from every state in the Union, and at 
the close of the reception, William Orton, president 
of the Western Union Telegraph Company, an- 
nounced that the telegraph instrument before the 
audience was in connection with every other one of 
the ten thousand instruments in America, and that, 
beside every instrument an operator was waiting to 
receive a message. Then a young operator sent this 
message from the key : " Greeting and thanks to the 
telegraph fraternity throughout the world. Glory 
to God in the highest; on earth, peace, good-will to 
men." Then the venerable inventor, the personifica- 
tion of dignity, simplicity and kindliness, bent above 
the key, and sent out, " S. F. B. Morse." A storm 
of enthusiasm swept over the audience, and the scene 
will never be forgotten by any who took part in it. 
The proudest boast of many an old operator is that 
he received that message. Death came to the inven- 
tor a year later, and on the day of his funeral, every 
telegraph office throughout the land was draped in 
mourning. 

Although to Morse belongs all the credit for the in- 
vention of the telegraph, it should, in justice to one 
man, be pointed out that it would have been impossi- 
ble but for a discovery which preceded it — that of 
the electro-magnet. To Joseph Henry, the great pliy- 

338 



Inventors 

sicist, first of Princeton, then of the Smitlisonian 
Institution, this invention is chiefly due. Wo have 
already spoken of Professor Henry's work in science, 
but none of it was more important than his inven- 
tion, in 1828, of the modern form of electro-magnet 
— a coil of silk-covered wire wound in a series of 
crossed layers around a soft iron core, and in 1831, 
he had used it to produce the ringing of a bell at a 
distance. It is this magnet which forms the basis 
of every telegraph instrument — is essential to it, 
and is the foundation of the entire electrical art. 
Let it be added to this great scientist's credit that 
he never sought to patent any of his inventions, 
giving them, as Franklin had done, free to all the 
world. 

The struggle which Morse made to perfect aud 
secure public recognition of his telegraph and the 
injustice shown Eli Whitney by the people of 
the South, were as nothing when compared with the 
trials of that most inifortimate of all inventors, 
Charles Goodyear, whose story is one of the most 
tragic in American annals. ISTo one can read of his 
struggles without experiencing the deepest admira- 
tion for a man who, at the time, was regarded as a 
hopeless lunatic. 

Charles Goodyear was born at New Haven, Con- 
necticut, in 1800. While he was still a child, his 
father moved to Philadelphia and engaged in the 
hardware business, in which his son joined him, as 
soon as he was old enough to do so. But the panic 
of 1836 wiped the business out of existence, and 

339 



A Guide to Biography 

Goodyear was forced to look around for some other 
means of livelihood. He had been interested for 
some time in the wonderful success of some newly- 
established India-rubber companies, and, out of curi- 
osity, bought an India-rubber life-preserver. Upon 
examining it, he found a defect in the valve, and in- 
venting an improvement in it, he went to ISTew York 
with the intention of selling his improvement to the 
manufacturer. The manufacturer was impressed 
with the new device, but told Goodyear frankly that 
the whole India-rubber business of the country was 
on the verge of collapse, and indeed, the collapse 
came a few months later. 

The trouble was that the goods which the rubber 
companies had been turning out were not durable. 
The use of rubber had begun about fifteen years be- 
fore, first in France in the manufacture of garters 
and suspenders, and then in England where a manu- 
facturer named Mackintosh made water-proof coats 
by spreading a layer of rubber between two layers of 
cloth. Then, in 1833, the Roxbury India-Rubber 
Company was organized in the United States, and 
manufactured an India-rubber cloth from which 
wagon-covers, caps, coats, and other articles were 
made. Its success was so great that other com- 
panies were organized and seemed on the highroad 
to fortune, when a sudden reverse came. For the 
heat of summer melted wagon-covers, caps and coats 
to sticky masses with an odor so offensive that they 
had to bo buried. So the business collapsed, the vari- 
ous companies went into bankruptcy, and the very 

340 



Inventors 

name of India-rubber came to be detested by pro- 
ducers and consumers alike. 

It was at this time that Charles Goodyear ap- 
peared upon the scene — unfortunately enough for 
himself, but fortunately for humanity — and deter- 
mined to discover some method by which rubber 
could be made to withstand the extremes of heat and 
cold. From that time until the close of his life, he de- 
voted himself wholly to this work, in the face of such 
hardships and discouragements as few other men have 
ever experienced. He began his experiments at once, 
and finally hit upon magnesia as a substance which, 
mixed with rubber, seemed to give it lasting proper- 
ties ; but a month later, the mixture began to ferment 
and became as hard and brittle as glass. 

His stock of money was soon exhausted, his own 
valuables, and even the trinkets of his wife were 
pawned, but Goodyear never for an instant thought 
of giving up the problem which he had set himself 
to solve. Again he believed he had discovered the 
secret by boiling the solution of rubber and magnesia 
is quicklime and water, when he found to his dismay 
that a drop of the weakest acid, such as the juice of 
an apple, would reduce an apparently fine sheet of 
rubber to a sticky mass. The first real step in the 
right direction was made by accident, for, in remov- 
ing some bronzing from a piece of rubber with aqua 
fortis, he found that the chemical worked a remark- 
able change in the rubber, which would now stand a 
degree of heat that would have melted it before. 
He called this " curing " India-rubber, and after care- 

341 



A Guide to Biography 

fill tests, patented the process, secured a partner with 
capital, rented an old India-rubber works on Staten 
Island, and set to work, full of hope. But commer- 
cial disaster swept away his partner's fortune, and 
Goodyear could find no one else who would risk his 
money in so doubtful an enterprise. 

Indeed, in all America he seemed to be the only 
man who had the slightest hope of accomplishing 
anything with India-rubber. His friends regarded 
him as a lunatic, and especially when he made him- 
self a suit of clothes out of his India-rubber cloth, 
and wore it on all occasions. One day a man looking 
for Goodyear asked one of the latter's friends how he 
would recognize him if he met him. 

" If you see a man with an India-rubber coat on," 
was the reply, " India-rubber shoes. India-rubber hat, 
and in his pocket an India-rubber purse with not a 
cent in it, that's Goodyear." 

The description was a good one, for that purse 
had been without a cent in it for a long time. It 
was to stay empty for some weary years longer. For 
he had not yet discovered the secret of making India- 
rubber permanent, as he found when he tried to fill 
a contract for a hundred and fifty mail bags ordered 
by the government. The bags were apparently per- 
fect, but in less than a month began to soften and fer- 
ment and were thrown back on his hands. All his 
property was seized and sold for debt; his family was 
reduced to the point of starvation, and friends, rela- 
tives and even his wife joined in demanding that 
he abandon this useless quest. 

342 



Inventors 

Goodyear was in despair, for he had just made an- 
other discovery that seemed to promise success — the 
discovery that sulphur was the active " curing " 
agent for India-rubber, and that it was the sulphuric 
acid in aqua fortis which had wrought the changes 
in rubber which he had noticed in his experiments. 
One day, while explaining the properties of a sul- 
phur-cured piece of rubber to an incredulous crowd 
in a country-store, he happened to let it fall on the 
red-hot stove. To his amazement it did not melt ; it 
had shrivelled some, but had not softened. And, at 
last, he had the key, which was that rubber mixed 
with sulphur and subjected to a certain degree of 
heat, would be rendered impervious to any extremes 
of temperature ! 

But what degree of heat? He experimented in 
the oven of his wife's cooking-stove, and in every 
other kind of oven to which he could gain access ; he 
induced a brick-layer to make him an oven, paying 
him in rubber aprons ; he grew yellow and shrivelled, 
for he and his family were living upon the charity 
of neighbors ; more than once, there was not a morsel 
of food in tlie house ; his friends thought seriously of 
shutting him up in an asylum ; he tried to get to ISTew 
York, but was arrested for debt, and thrown into 
prison. Even in prison, he tried to interest men 
with capital in his discovery, for he needed delicate 
and expensive apparatus, and at last tw^o brothers, 
William and Emory Rider agreed to advance him a 
certain sum. The laboratory was built, and in 1844, 
Goodyear astonished the world by producing perfect 

343 



A Guide to Biograpliy 

vulcanized Tndin-rubbor with eeonouiv and certainty. 
The long and desperate battle had been won ! 

Did he reap a fortune ? By no means ! In one 
way or another, he was defrauded of liis patent 
rights. In England, for instance, another man who 
received a copy of the American patent, actually ap- 
plied for and obtained the English rights in his own 
name. In 1S58, the United States Connnissioner of 
Patents said, " No inventor, probably, has ever been 
so harassed, so trampled upon, so plundered by that 
sordid and licentious class of infringers known in the 
parlance of the world as ' pirates." " Worn out with 
work uuil disappointment, Goodyear died two years 
later, a bankrupt. But his story should be remem- 
bered, and his memory honored, by every American. 

iN'ear a little mountain liandet of central Sweden 
stands a great pyramid of iron cast from ore dug 
from the neighboring mountains. It is set up on a 
base of granite also quarried from those mountains, 
and bears upon it two names, Nils Ericsson and John 
Ericsson. The monument marks the place where 
these two men were born. The life of the former was 
passed in Sweden and does not concern us, but John 
Ericsson's name is closely connected with the history 
of the United States. 

He was the son of a poor minor, and one of his 
earliest recollections was of the sheriif coming to 
take away all their household goods in {)ayment of a 
debt. He was put to work in the iron mines as soon 
as he was able to earn a few pennies daily, and he 

344 



Inventors 

soon developed a remarkable aptitude for mechanics. 
At Ili(^ age of eleven, he planned a pumping engine 
to keep the mines free from water, and at the age of 
twelve, was made a member of the surveying party 
in charge of the construction of the Gotha ship canal, 
and was soon himself in charge of a section of the 
work, with six hundred men under him, one of whom 
was detailed to follow him with a stool, upon which 
lie stood to use the surveying instruments. It re- 
minds one of Farragut commanding a war ship, at 
the age of eleven. 

In 182G, at the age of twenty-three, he went to 
England to introduce a flame or gas-engine which 
he had invented. He remained there for eleven 
years, and then a fortunate chance won him for the 
United States. He had been experimenting with a 
screw or propeller for steamboats, instead of the 
paddle-wheels as used by Fulton, and finally, equip- 
ping a small boat with two propellers, offered the in- 
vention to the British admiralty. But the admiralty 
was skeptical. The United States consul in Liver- 
pool happened to be Francis B. Ogden, a pioneer in 
steam navigation on the Ohio river. He was im- 
pressed with Ericsson's invention, introduced him to 
Robert F. Stockton, of the United States navy, and 
on their assurance that the invention would be taken 
up in the United States, closed up his affairs in Eng- 
land and sailed for this country. 

His first experiment was disastrous — though 
through no fault of his. A ship-of-war called the 
Princeton was ordered by the government and com- 

345 



A Guide to Biography 

pleted. She embodied, besides screw propellers, 
many other features which made her a nine days' 
wonder. A distinguished company boarded her for 
her trial trip, and it was decided also to test her big 
guns. But at the first discharge, the gun burst, 
killing the secretary of state, the secretary of the 
navy, the captain of the ship, and a number of other 
well known men. As a consequence, the experiment 
was stopped and Ericsson was twelve years in secur- 
ing from the government the $15,000 he had spent 
in equipping the Princeton. 

However, he was soon to render the country a 
service which will never be forgotten. In 1861, he 
appeared before the navy department with a plan 
for an iron-clad consisting of a revolving turret 
mounted upon an armored raft. He secured an order 
for one such vessel, to be paid for only in the event 
that it proved successful. The majority of the board 
which gave the order doubtless laughed in their 
sleeves as the inventor withdrew, for what chance of 
success had such a vessel ? There were some who 
even doubted whether she would float — among them 
her builders, who took the precaution of placing 
buoys under her before they launched her four 
months later. 

Of the voyage of the little craft from New York 
to Hampton Roads, and of her epoch-making battle 
with the Merrimac we have already told. Ericsson 
had asked that she be named the " Monitor," as a 
warning to the nations of the world that a new era 
in naval warfare had begun, and that she was well- 

346 



Inventors 

named no one could donbt after that momentous 
ninth of March, 1862. Honors were showered upon 
the inventor, whose great service to the nation could 
not be questioned. The following ten years of his 
life were devoted to the construction of his famous 
torpedo-boat, the " Destroyer," which, he believed, 
would annihilate any vessel afloat — the predecessor 
of all the torpedo-boats, past and present, which 
have played so imporant a part in naval warfare. 
He lived for more than twenty years in a house in 
Beach street, New York, where he died, in 1889. 

The Monitor's attack upon the Merrimac would 
have been ineffective but for the remarkable guns 
with which the little craft was armed—two eleven- 
inch rifled cannon, the invention of John Adolph 
Dahlgren. Dahlgren had been connected with the 
ordnance department of the navy at Washington 
for many years, and his inventions had revolution- 
ized United States gunnery. 

Dahlgren was born at Philadelphia, where his 
father was Swedish consul, a position which he held 
until his death in 1824. The boy, from his earliest 
years, liad been ambitious to enter the navy, and 
finally, at the age of seventeen, received his mid- 
shipman's warrant. In 1847, he was assigned to 
ordnance duty at Washington, and began that ca- 
reer of extraordinary energy, which lasted for six- 
teen years. He saw almost at once the many defects 
in the cannon which were at that time being manu- 
factured, and soon offered a design of his own, which 
proved a vast advance over old guns. The Dahlgren 

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A Guide to Biography 

gim, as it was called, was of iron, east solid, with a 
thick breech adjusted to meet varying pressure 
strains. The invention of the rifled cannon fol- 
lowed, and it was this weapon which caused even the 
great armored Merrimac to tremble. Admiral Dahl- 
gren's career was a distinguished one, but no service 
he rendered his country was more noteworthy than 
this. 

But there are triumphs of peace, as well as of 
war, and one of the most notable of these was won 
by Cyrus Hall McCormick when he invented the 
automatic reaper which bears his name. In 1859, it 
was estimated that the reaper was worth $55,000,000 
a year to the United States ; William H. Seward re- 
marked that, " owing to Mr. McCormick's invention, 
the line of civilization moves westward thirty miles 
each year " ; and the London Times declared, after it 
had been tested at the great international exhibition 
of 1851, that it was "worth to the farmers of Eng- 
land the whole cost of that exhibition." To few men 
is it given to confer such benefits upon mankind, and 
the career of this one is well worth dwelling upon. 

Cyrus McCormick was born in 1809, in a little 
house at the hamlet of Walnut Grove, "Virginia. His 
father was a farmer, and was also something of a 
mechanical genius, and as early as 1816, had tried 
to build a mechanical reaper. His son inherited this 
aptitude, and helped his father in mechanical ex- 
periments, soon quite outstripping him. As a farm- 
er's boy, his day's work in the fields began at five 
o'clock in the morning, and in the harvesting season 

348 



Inventors 

even earlier. But in the harvest field, he found him- 
self unable to keep up with grown men in the hard 
work of sAvinging the scythe, and so devised a har- 
vesting-cradle, which made the work so much easier 
that he was able to do his share. At the age of 
twenty-two he invented a plough, which threw alter- 
nate furrows on either side, and two years later, a 
self -sharpening plough, which proved a great success. 

Then he turned his attention to a mechanical 
reaper, though his father warned him against wast- 
ing time and money on so impracticable a project. 
But the possibility of making a machine do the hot 
hand-work of the harvest field fascinated the young 
man, and he set to work upon the problem. It was 
not an easy one, for the machine, to be successful, 
must not only work in fields where the wheat stood 
straight, but also where it had become tangled and 
beaten down by wind and rain. In 1831, he pro- 
duced his first practicable machine, making every 
part of it himself by hand. Its three essential feat- 
ures have never been changed — a vibrating cutting- 
blade, a reel to bring the grain within reach of the 
blade, and a platform to receive the falling grain. 
The problem had been solved. 

Three years, however, were spent in perfecting the 
minor working parts, then another was built and 
tested. It worked well, but McCormick was still not 
satisfied with it, and not until 1840, was it perfected 
sufficiently to make him willing to put it on the 
market. This self-restraint was remarkable, but it 
had this good effect, that when the machine was 

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A Guide to Biography 

finally offered to the public, it was not an experi- 
ment. So there were no failures, but a steady in- 
crease in demand from the very first, until the great 
factory, which McCormick early located at Chicago, 
now turns out nearly two hundred thousand machines 
a year. The whir of these machines is heard around 
the world — everywhere the McCormick reaper is do- 
ing its share toward lightening man's labor. 

Another of the great victories of peace was won by 
Elias Howe, when, in 1844, he invented a machine 
which would sew. Strangely enough, he was at first 
regarded as an enemy of humanity, rather than as a 
friend ; an enemy, especially, of the poor sewing- 
women who earned a pitiful living with the needle. 
Few had the foresight to perceive that it was these 
very women whose toil he was doing most to 
lighten ! 

Elias Howe, born in Spencer, Massachusetts, in 
1819, as the son of a poor miller, and was put to 
work at the age of six to contribute his mite to the 
support of the family. He was a frail child and 
slightly lame, so that, after trying in vain to do farm 
labor, he went to work in the mill, and afterwards in 
a machine shop, where he learned to be a first-class 
machinist — knowledge which, at a later day, was to 
stand him in good stead. He married, at the age of 
twenty-one, and three children were born to him. 
Then came a period of illness, during which the 
young mother supported the family by sewing; and 
as Howe lay upon his bed, watching his wife at this 
tedious labor, the thought came to him what a bless- 

350 



Inventors 

ing it would be to mankind if a machine could be 
devised to do that work. 

The idea remained with him, and finally led to ex- 
periments. Of the many disappointments, the long 
months of patient labor, the intense thought, the re- 
peated failures, there is not room to tell here; but 
at last he hit upon the solution of the problem — the 
use of two threads, making the stitch by means of 
a shuttle and a needle with the eye near the 
point. In October, 1844, he produced a rude ma- 
chine which would actually sew. Another year was 
spent in perfecting it, while he kept his family from 
starvation by doing such odd jobs as he could find, 
and in the winter of 1845, he was ready to introduce 
his machine to the public. 

But here an unforeseen difficulty arose. The pub- 
lic refused to have anything to do with the machine. 
The tailors declared it would ruin their trade, and 
refused to try it ; nobody could be found who would 
invest a dollar in it; and Howe, in despair, was 
forced to put his invention away and to accept a 
place as railway engineer in order to support his 
family. Some disastrous years followed, his wife 
died, and he was left in absolute poverty, but at last 
came a ray of light. A man named Bliss became in- 
terested in Howe's invention, and a few machines 
were made and marketed in I^ew York. Riots 
among the workingmen followed, so serious that for 
a time the use of the machines was stopped; but no 
human power could stay the wheel of progress, and 
as the value of the invention came to be recognized, 

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A Guide to Biography 

all opposition to it faded away. Howe's royalties 
grew to enormous proportions, but he had been 
broken in health by his years of struggle and hard- 
ship, and lived only a few years to enjoy them. 

George Henry Corliss was another mechanical gen- 
ius, who, in one respect, anticipated Howe, for about 
1842 he actually invented a machine for stitching 
leather. That was two years before Howe made his 
discovery. But Corliss was soon attracted to other 
work, and the development of the sewing macliine 
was left for the other inventor. It was in 1846 that 
Corliss began to develop those improvements in the 
steam engine which were to revolutionize its con- 
struction. One trouble with the steam engine as 
then built was that it was not uniform in motion. 
That is, if the engine was running a lot of machines, 
their speed would vary from moment to moment, as 
they were started or stopped. For instance, a hundred 
looms, all running at once, would run at a certain 
speed, but if some of them were shut off, the speed 
of the others would increase, so that it was very 
difficult to regulate them. Again, there was a tre- 
mendous waste of power, so that the fuel consump- 
tion was out of all proportion to the power actually 
developed. 

It was these defects that Corliss set himself to rem- 
edy, and he did it simply by taking a load off the 
governor, which had always been used to move the 
throttle-valve. In the Corliss engine, the governor 
simply indicated to the valves the work to be done, 
and the saving of fuel was so great that the in- 

352 



Inventors 

ventor often installed his engine under a contract to 
take the saving in coal-bills from a certain period 
as his pay. One of his great achievements was the 
construction of a 1400 horse power engine to move 
all the machinery at the centennial exposition at 
Philadelphia, in 1876. The engine, which worked 
splendidly, was one of the sights of the exposition. 

What the sewing-machine is to the needle, the 
typewriter is to the pen. No other one invention 
has so revolutionized business, and the credit for the 
invention of a practicable typewriting machine is due 
to C. Latham Sholes. Others had tried their hands 
at the problem before he took it up, but he was the 
first to hit upon its solution — a number of type-bars 
carrying the letters of the alphabet operated by lev- 
ers and striking upon a common centre, past which 
the paper was carried on a revolving cylinder. 

Sholes had a varied and picturesque career. Born 
in Pennsylvania in 1819, he followed the printer's 
trade for a number of years, and it was no doubt 
from the type that he got his idea of engraved dies 
mounted on type-bars. Finally he removed to Wis- 
consin, where he edited a paper and soon became 
prominent in the politics of the state, holding a num- 
ber of appointive positions. It was in 1866 that he 
began to experiment with a writing-machine, and his 
first one, which was patented two years later, was as 
big as a sewing-machine. Still, it embodied the es- 
sential principles of the typewriter as it is made to- 
day, and after spending five years in perfecting it, 
Sholes made a contract with E. Remington & Son to 

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A Guide to Biography 

manufacture it. It is one of the ironies of fate that 
the name principally connected with the typewriter 
in the public mind is that of the manufacturer, the 
identity of the inventor being completely lost, so 
far as applied, at least, to the name of any machine. 

We have spoken elsewhere of the career of John 
D. Rockefeller, of the immense fortune he made 
from petroleum and the manner in which he disposed 
of a portion of it. It is worth pausing a moment to 
consider the career of the two men who discovered 
petroleum, who sunk the first well in search of a 
larger supply, and who put it on the market. There 
is scarcely any development of modern life to rank 
in importance with the introduction of kerosene. It 
added at once several hours to every day, and 
who can estimate what these evening hours, spent 
usually in study or reading, have meant to human- 
ity? 

In the early part of the century, whales were so 
plentiful, especially along the New England coast, 
that whale, or sperm, oil was used for lighting pur- 
poses, and many of the old whale-oil lamps are still 
in existence. The light they gave was dim and 
smoky, but it was far better than no light at all. 
As the years passed, whales became more and more 
scarce, until sperm oil was selling at over two dollars 
a gallon. Only the richest people could afford to pay 
that, and the poor passed their evenings in darkness. 

In 1854, a man named James M. To\vnsend 
brought to Professor Silliman, of Yale, a bottle of 

354 



Inventors 

oil, asking him to test it. This was done, and the 
astonished professor found that here was an oil, 
whose source he could only guess, which made a 
splendid illuminant and which also seemed to have 
some medicinal properties. The oil was from Oil 
Creek, Pennsylvania, and Townsend, associating 
with himself a conductor named E. L. Drake, formed 
the Seneca Oil Company and began gathering the oil 
by digging trenches. At first it was bottled and sold 
for medicinal purposes at one dollar a gallon ; then 
Drake suggested that a larger supply might be secured 
if a well was bored for it. A man familiar with salt 
well boring was employed, and in 1859 the first well 
was begun at Titusville. 

Most people regarded Drake as a madman, and 
thought that he was simply throwing money away. 
The work was costly and slow, and finally, when 
$50,000 had been spent without result, the stock- 
holders of the company refused to go further — all 
except Townsend. That enthusiast managed to rake 
up another $500, which he sent to Drake, with in- 
structions to make it go as far as possible. It did 
not go very far — and yet far enough — for one day 
the auger, which was down sixty-eight feet, struck 
a cavity, and up came a flow of oil to within five 
feet of the surface. Pumping began at the rate of 
five hundred barrels a day, and fortune seemed in 
sight. But three months later, the company's works 
were destroyed by fire, and before they could be re- 
built, scores of other wells had been sunk, many of 
which were " gushers," requiring no pumping, and 

355 



A Guide to Biography 

the supply was soon so far in excess of the demand 
that the price of oil tumbled to one dollar a barrel. 
Discouraged by all this, the Seneca Company sold 
out its leases and disbanded, leaving Townsend and 
Drake poorer than they had been before their great 
discovery. 

Years ago, in 1790, to be exact, an Italian scien- 
tist named Galvani, experimenting with the legs of a 
frog, happened to touch the exposed nerves with a 
piece of metal, while the legs were lying across an- 
other piece. He was astonished to see the legs con- 
tract violently. Further experiments followed, and 
the galvanic battery resulted. Years later, our own 
Professor Henry discovered that if an insulated wire 
carrying a current of electricity was wrapped around 
a piece of soft iron, the latter became a magnet. Out 
of these simple discoveries, came the electric tele- 
graph, and, still more wonderful, the telephone, by 
which the human voice may be instantly projected 
hundreds of miles, not only intelligibly, but with 
every tone and inflection reproduced. In an age of 
wonders, this is surely one of the greatest. 

On February 14, 1876, two applications were 
made at the patent office at Washington for patents 
upon the conveyance of sound by electricity. One 
was filed by Elisha Gray, the other by Alexander 
Graham Bell. They were practically identical, but it 
was Bell's good fortune to be the first to make his 
device practically effective, and so he may fairly be 
considered the inventor of the telephone. 

356 



Inventors 

Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, 
Scotland, in 1847, the son of the famous Alexander 
Melville Bell, the inventor of the system by which 
deaf people are enabled to read speech more or less 
correctly by observing the motion of the lips. The 
family moved to Canada in 1872, and Alexander 
Bell came to Boston, where he soon became widely 
kno^vn as an authority in the teaching of the deaf 
and dumb. The reproduction of the human voice by 
mechanical means interested him deeply, and his 
study of the construction of the human ear, with its 
drum vibrating in response to sound vibrations, gave 
him the idea of a vibrating piece of iron in front of 
an electric magnet. He was, however, very poor and 
had no money to expend in experiments — so poor, 
indeed, that when attacked by illness, his hospital 
expenses were paid by his employer, and so friend- 
less that during his illness no one visited him except 
two or three pupils from his school. 

He persevered with his experiments, with such 
rude apparatus as he could make himself, and the 
first Bell telephone was brought into existence with 
an old cigar-box, two hundred feet of wire, and two 
magnets from a toy fish-pond. In an improved form, 
it was shown at the Centennial exhibition of 1876, 
where Sir William Thomson pronounced it " the 
greatest marvel hitherto achieved by the electric 
telegraph." As is always the case, the public was 
slow to appreciate the importance of the invention, 
and as late as 1877, Bell was unable to secure $10,000 
for a half interest in the European rights. The rapid 

357 



A Guide to Biography 

growth of the business in this country is almost with- 
out a parallel in history, and no invention has added 
more to the convenience of modern life. 

A distinguished scientist one day asked the late 
Clerk Maxv/ell what was the greatest scientific dis- 
covery of the last half century, and Maxwell an- 
swered without an instant's hesitation : " That the 
Gramme macliine is reversible." Probably the whole 
scientific world will agree witli him, for that dis- 
covery meant that power will not only produce elec- 
tricity, but that electricity will produce power. Let 
us see how that has been applied. Falling w^ater is 
one of the most powerful agents in the world, and at 
a great waterfall like jSfiagara, millions of horse- 
power go to waste every day. So at the foot of Nia- 
gara, great power-houses have been built where the 
power of the water is converted into electricity. The 
electricity is conducted along W'ires for hundreds of 
miles to the great industrial centres, and there con- 
verted back again into power. In other words, the 
water of Niagara is to-day turning machinery in 
Buffalo and Albany. The same method of producing 
power, the cheapest that has ever been discovered, is 
being installed all over the world, and will, in time, 
produce a revolution in manufacturing processes. 

The vital mechanism in the production of this 
power is the dynamo, and it is to Charles F. Brush, 
of Cleveland, Ohio, that its development is princi- 
pally due. He was interested in electricity from his 
earliest j^ears, and when he was only thirteen, dis- 

358 



Inventors 

tinguislied himself by making magnetic macliines 
and batteries for the Cleveland high-school, where 
he was a pupil. During his senior year, the physical 
apparatus of the school laboratory was placed under 
his charge, and he constructed an electric motor hav- 
ing its field magnets as well as its armature excited 
by the electric current. He devised an apparatus 
for turning on the gas in the street lamps of Cleve- 
land, lighting it and turning it off again, thus doing 
away with the expensive process of lighting them 
and turning them out by hand. 

After graduating from the University of Michigan 
with the degree of mining engineer, he returned to 
Cleveland, where, in 1875, his attention was drawn 
to the great need of a more effective dynamo than the 
clumsy and inefficient types then in use. In two 
months, Brush had made a djmamo so perfect in 
every way that it was running until taken to the 
Chicago Exposition, in 1893. Six months more of 
experimenting resulted in the Brush arc light, and 
in 1879 the Brush Electric Company was organized. 
A year later, the first Brush lights were installed in 
ISTew York City, and now there is scarcely a town 
ill the country which does not pay tribute to the 
inventor. 

Let us turn for a moment from the field of elec- 
tricity, in which America has been pre-eminent, to 
another in which Yankee ingenuity has also led the 
world — the railroad. It was in this country that the 
sleeping-car, the diner, the parlor-car were first used ; 

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A Guide to Biography 

no other country afPords such luxury of travel ; and 
no other country has added to railroading any device 
comparable in importance to the invention of George 
Westinghouse, the air-brake. Before its introduction, 
to stop a train brakes must be set painfully by hand, 
and even then were not always effective. Now, the 
engineer, by pulling a single lever, sets the brakes in- 
stantly all along his train, and so effectively that the 
passengers sometimes feel as though the train had 
struck a rock. More than that, should any accident 
occur, breaking the train in two, the brakes are in- 
stantly set automatically. All of which is done by 
the power of compresed air, working through a series 
of pipes and air-hose beneath the cars. 

George Westinghouse's father was superintendent 
of the Schenectady Agricultural Works, and it was 
there that the boy found his vocation. Before he 
was fifteen, he had modelled and built a steam en- 
gine, and followed that with a steel railroad frog, 
which was so great an improvement over the frogs 
then in use that it was soon widely adopted, and 
brought the young inventor both money and reputa- 
tion. He moved to Pittsburgh, as the centre of the 
iron and steel business, and began the manufacture 
of his frogs there. 

One day he came across a newspaper account of 
the successful use of compressed air in the digging 
of the Mont Cenis tunnel, in Switzerland, and the 
thought occurred to him that perhaps a railroad 
train could be controlled by the same agency. He 
worked over the problem for a time, but when he 

360 



Inventors 

mentioned his idea to his friends, they were in- 
clined to think it absurd to suppose that a nibber- 
tube strung along under the cars could work the 
brakes effectively. However, Westinghouse was not 
discouraged, but continued to experiment, and the 
air-brake as we have it to-day was the result. 

Which brings us to the most remarkable genius in 
the field of invention the world has ever known 
— the man who has made invention, as it were, a 
business, whose life has been devoted to rendering 
practical and useful the dreams of other men, who 
has reduced invention to a science — Thomas Alva 
Edison. There are some who are inclined to belittle 
Edison's achievements because some of the greatest 
of them have been founded upon the ideas of others. 
He is best known, for instance, as the inventor of the 
modern incandescent light; but tlie discovery that 
light may be obtained from wire heated to incandes- 
cence in a glass bulb from which the air has been 
exhausted, was made when Edison was only two 
years old. Experiments with this light were made 
by a dozen scientists, but it remained a mere labora- 
tory curiosity until Edison took hold of it, and with 
a patience, ingenuity and fertility of resource, in 
which he stands alone, made it a practicable, effi- 
cient and convenient source of light. That the in- 
candescent light, as it is kno\vn to-day, is his through 
and through cannot be questioned. 

It is as a scientific inventor that Edison likes to 
be known. He abhors the word discoverer, as ap- 

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A Guide to Biography 

plied to himself. " Discovery is not invention," he 
once said. " A discovery is more or less in the 
nature of an accident, while an invention is purely 
deductive. In my own case, but few, and those the 
least important, of my inventions, owed anything to 
accident. Most of them have been hammered out 
after long and patient labor, and are the result of 
countless experiments all directed toward attaining 
some well-defined object." 

There is, however, one modern marvel for which 
Edison is wholly responsible, both for the initial idea 
and for its practical working-out — the phonogi'aph — 
but let us tell something of his early life, before we 
relate the achievements of his manhood. 

Born in a little village in Erie County, Ohio, in 
184Y, Edison was early introduced to the struggle 
for existence. His father was very poor, being, in- 
deed, the village jack-of -all-trades, and living upon 
such odd jobs as he was able to procure. The boy, of 
course, was put to work as soon as he was old enough, 
and of regular schooling had only two months 
in all his life. At the age of twelve, he was a train- 
boy on the Michigan Central Railroad, selling books, 
papers, candy, and fruit to the passengers. He 
managed to get some type and an old press and 
issued a little paper called the " Grand Trunk 
Herald," containing the news of the railroad. One 
day, he snatched the little child of the station-master 
at Port Clements, Michigan, from under the wheels 
of a train, and in return the grateful father taught 
the boy telegraphy. 

362 



Inventors 

It was the turning-point in his career, for it 
turned his attention to the study of electricity, with 
which he was soon fascinated. At eighteen, he was 
working as an operator at Indianapolis, but he was 
from the very first, more of an inventor than an 
operator, and his inventions sometimes got him into 
trouble. For instance, at one place where he had 
a night trick, he was required to report the word 
" six " every half-hour to the manager to show that 
he was awake and on duty. After a while, he rigged 
up a wheel to do it for him, and all went well until 
the manager happened to visit the office one night 
and found Edison sleeping calmly while his wheel 
was sending in the word " six." But he nevertheless 
developed into one of the swiftest operators in the 
country, all the time devising changes and improve- 
ments in the mechanism of telegraphy. 

His first great success came with the sale of an 
improvement in the instruments used to record stock 
quotations, which enabled these " tickers " to print 
the quotations legibly on paper tape, and this success 
enabled him to get some capitalists to finance his 
experiments witli the electric liglit. The arrrange- 
ment was that they were to pay the expense of the 
experiments and to share in such inventions as re- 
sulted. For the sake of quiet, he moved out to a 
little place in New Jersey called Menlo Park, and 
built himself a shop. Then began that remarkable 
series of experiments — one of the most remarkable in 
history — which resulted in the perfection of the in- 
candescent lamp. 

363 



A Guide to Biography 

The problem was to find a material for the fila- 
ment which would give a bright light and which 
would, at the same time, be durable, and with this 
end in view, hundreds and hundreds of different fila- 
ments were tried. The difficulties in the way of 
this experimenting were enormous, since the light 
only burns when in a vacuum, and the instant the 
vacuum is impaired, out it goes. At one time, all 
the lamps he had burning at Menlo Park, about 
eighty in all, went out, one after another, without 
apparent cause. The lamps had been equipped with 
filaments of carbon and had burned for a month. 
There seemed to be no reason why they should not 
burn for a year, and Edison was stunned by the 
catastrophe. He began at once the most exhaustive 
series of experiments ever undertaken by an Ameri- 
can physicist, remaining in his laboratory for five 
days and nights, dining at his work bench on bread 
and cheese, and snatching a little sleep occasionally, 
when one of his assistants was on duty. It was 
finally discovered that the air had not been suffi- 
ciently exhausted from the lamps. 

Again success seemed in sight, but soon the lamps 
began acting queerly again. Worn out with fatigue 
and disappointment, Edison took to his bed. Ulti- 
mate failure was freely predicted, and the price of 
gas stock rose again. In five months, the inventor 
had aged five years, but he was not yet ready to give 
up the fight. And at last it was won, and the incan- 
descent lamp placed on the market. It has not dis- 
placed gas, as some people thought it would, but it is 

364 



Inventors 

the basis of a business which made the inventor suffi- 
ciently rich to realize his great ambition of building 
himself the finest laboratory in the world; where 
the most expert iron-workers, wood-workers, glass- 
blowers, metal-spinners, machinists and chemists in 
the world find employment. Every known metal, 
every chemical, every kind of glass, stone, earth, 
wood, fibre, paper, skin, cloth, may be found in its 
store-rooms, ready for instant use. The library con- 
tains one of the finest collections of scientific books 
and periodicals to be found anywhere. These are the 
tools, and with them Edison is constantly at work 
upon a great variety of problems. 

The first thing he turned his hand to after his 
installation in his new laboratory was the phono- 
graph. The patient thought and experiment, extend- 
ing over many years, lavished on this wonderful in- 
vention are almost unbelievable. The idea had come 
to him years before, when he had worked out an 
instrument that would not only record telegrams by 
indenting a strip of paper with the dots and dashes 
of the Morse code, but would also repeat the message 
any number of times by running the indented strip 
of paper through it. 

" Naturally enough," said Edison, in telling the 
story, " the idea occurred to me that if the indenta- 
tions on paper could be made to give oif again the 
click of the instrument, why could not the vibra- 
tions of a diaphragm be recorded and similarly re- 
produced ? I rigged up an instrument hastily and 
pulled a strip of paper through it, at the same time 

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A Guide to Biography 

shouting ' Hallo ! ' Then the paper was pulled 
through again, and listening breathlessly, I heard a 
distinct sound, which a strong imagination might 
have translated into the original ' Hallo ! ' That was 
enough to lead me to a further experiment. I made 
a drawing of a model, and took it to Mr, Kruesi, at 
that time engaged on piece-work for me. I told him 
it was a talking-machine. He grinned, thinking it 
a joke ; but he set to work and soon had the model 
ready. I arranged some tin-foil on it and spoke into 
the machine. Kruesi looked on, still grinning. But 
when I arranged the machine for transmission and we 
both heard a distinct sound from it, he nearly fell 
down in his fright. I must admit that I was a little 
scared myself." The words Avhich he had spoken 
into the machine and which were the first ever to be 
reproduced mechanically, was the old Mother Goose 
quatrain, starting, " Mary had a Little Lamb." 

From that rude beginning came the phonograph, 
with which Edison has never ceased to experiment. 
He has made improvements in it from 3'ear to year, 
until it has reached its present high state of efhciency 
— a state, however, which Edison hopes to improve 
still further. In addition to the two great inven- 
tions of the phonograph and incandescent lamp, 
which we have dwelt upon here, many more stand 
to his credit. In fact, he has been the greatest client 
the patent office ever had, nearly one thousand pat- 
ents having been issued in his name. At the age of 
sLxty-three, he shows no sign of falling off in either 
mental or physical energy, and no doubt more than 

366 



Inventors 

one invention has yet to come from Llewellyn Park 
before he quits his great laboratory forever. 

No one can ever guess at the future of electrical 
invention. The recent marvelous development of the 
wireless telegraph, by which the impalpable ether is 
harnessed to man's service, is an indication of the 
wonders which may be expected in the future. It 
was our own Joseph Henry who, in 1842, discovered 
the electric wave — the '' induction " upon which 
wireless telegraphy depends. He discovered that 
when he produced an electric spark an inch long in a 
room at the top of his house, electrical action was in- 
stantly set up in another wire circuit in the cellar. 
After some study, he saw and announced that the 
electric spark started some sort of action in the ether, 
which passed through floors and ceilings and all 
other intervening objects, and caused induction in 
the wires in the cellar. But wireless telegraphy was 
made a commercial possibility not by any great scien- 
tist, but by a young Italian named Marconi. Al- 
ready experiments with wireless telephony are going 
forward, and anotlier half century may see all tlie 
labor of the world performed by this wonderful and 
mysterious force which we call electricity. 

From earliest times, man has longed to navigate 
the air. He has watched with envy the free flight of 
birds, and has tried to imitate it, usually with disas- 
trous results. The balloon, of course, enabled him 
to rise in the air, but once there, he was at the mercy 
of every wind. More recently, balloons fitted with 

367 



A Guide to Biography 

motors and steering gear have been devised, which 
are to some extent dirigible ; but the real problem has 
been to fly as birds do without any such artificial aid 
as balloons provide. 

Experiments to solve this problem were begun 
several years ago by Professor S. P. Langley, of the 
Smithsonian Institution, under government supervis- 
ion, and pointed the way to other investigators. He 
proved, theoretically, that air-flight was possible, pro- 
vided sufficient velocity could be obtained. He 
showed that a heavier-than-air machine would sus- 
tain itself in the air if it could only be driven fast 
enough. You have all skipped flat stones across the 
water. Well, that is exactly the principle of the fly- 
ing machine. As long as the stone went fast enough, 
it skipped along the top of the water, which sustained 
it and even threw it up into the air again. When its 
speed slackened, it sank. So the boy on skates can 
skim safely across thin ice which would not boar his 
weight for an instant if he tried to stand upon it. 

So, theoretically, it was possible to fly, but to re- 
duce theory to practice was a very different thing. 
Professor Langley tried for years and failed. He 
built a great machine, which plunged beneath the 
waters of the Potomac a minute after it was 
launched. All over the world, inventors were strug- 
gling with the problem, but nowhere with any great 
degree of success. It remained for two brothers, in 
a little workshop at Dayton, Ohio, to produce the 
first machine which would really fly. 

Orville and Wilbur Wright were poor boys, the 
368 



Inventors 

sons of a clergyman, and apparently in no way dis- 
tinguished from ordinary boys, except by a taste for 
mechanics. They had a little workshop, and one day 
in 1905, they brought out a strange looking machine 
from it, and announced that it was a flying-machine. 
The people of Dayton smiled skeptically, and assem- 
bled to witness the demonstration with the thought 
that there would probably soon be need for an ambu- 
lance. The gasoline motor with which the machine 
was equipped, was started, one of the brothers 
climbed aboard and grasped the levers, the other 
dropped a weight which started the machine down a 
long incline. For a moment, it slid along, then its 
great forward planes caught the air current and it 
soared gracefully up into the air. 

That was a great moment in human history, so 
great that the crowd looking on scarcely realized its 
import. They watched the machine with bated 
breath, and saw it steered around in a circle, showing 
that it could go against the wind as well as with it. 
For thirty-eight minutes it remained in the air, mak- 
ing a circular flight of over twenty-four miles. Then 
it was gently landed and the exhibition was over. 
Great crowds flocked to Dayton, after that, expecting 
to see further exhibitions, but they were disap- 
pointed. The machine had been taken back to the 
shop, and the young inventors announced that they 
were making some changes in it. No one was ad- 
mitted to the shop, nor were any other flights made. 

One day the inventors also disappeared, and 
months later it was discovered that they had built 

369 



A Guide to Biography 

themselves a little shop on a deserted stretch of the 
sandy !North Carolina coast, and that they were 
carrying on their experiments there, secure from 
observation. Enterprising reporters tried to inter- 
view them and failed ; but, ambushed afar off, they 
one day saw the great machine soaring proudly in a 
wide circle above the sands. A photographer even 
got a distant photograph of it. There could be 
no doubt that the Wright brothers had solved the 
problem of flight. 

But not for two years more were they ready for 
public exhibitions. Then, in 1908, tljey appeared 
at Fort Myer, Virginia, ready to take part in the 
contest set by the United States government. No one 
who was jDresent on that first day will ever forget his 
sensations as the great winged creature rose grace- 
fully from the ground and circled about in the air 
overhead. Again and again flights were made, some- 
times with an extra passenger ; great speed was at- 
tained and the machine was under perfect control. 
But an unfortunate accident put a stop to the trials, 
for one day a propellor-blade broke while the ma- 
chine was in mid-air, and it struck the ground be- 
fore it could be righted. The passenger, a member 
of the United States Signal Corps, was instantly 
killed and Orville Wright was seriously injured. 

Meanwhile, the other brother, Wilbur, had gone 
to Europe, where, first in France, and afterwards in 
Italy and England, he created a tremendous sensa- 
tion by his spectacular flights. They were uniformly 
successful. Not an accident marred them. The gov- 

370 



Inventors 

ernments of Europe were quick to secure the right 
to manufacture the aeroplane ; kings and princes vied 
with each other in honoring the young inventor, and 
when he returned to the United States, city, state, 
and nation combined in a great reception to him and 
to his brother. 

As these lines are being written, in August, 1909, 
another series of flights has been concluded at Fort 
Myer. They were successful in every way in ful- 
filling the government tests, and the Wrights' ma- 
chine was purchased by the government for $30,000. 
Everywhere air-ship flights are being made success- 
fully, and it is only a question of time until the aero- 
plane becomes a common means of conveyance. 
Wilbur Wright declares that it is already safer than 
the automobile, and it would seem that there is in 
store for man a new and exquisite sensation, that of 
flight. 

Surely, America has cause to be proud of her in- 
ventors ! 

SUMMARY 

Fulton, Robert. Born at Little Britain, Pennsyl- 
vania, 1765; went to London, 1786, to study painting 
under Benjamin West; abandoned painting, 1793; re- 
turned to America, 1806 ; first successful trip in steam- 
boat, the Clermont, August 11, 1807; died at New York 
City, February 24, 1815. 

Whitney, Eli. Born at Westborough, Massachu- 
setts, December 8, 1765; graduated at Yale, 1792; went 
to Georgia as teacher and invented cotton-gin, 1792- 
93; died at New Haven, Connecticut, January 8, 1825. 

371 



A Guide to Biographj 

Morse, Samuel Finley Breese. Born at Charles- 
toAvn, Massachusetts, April 37, 1791 ; graduated at 
Yale, 1810; studied art under Benjamin West in Lon- 
don, and opened studio in New York City, 1823 ; first 
president National Academy of Design, 1826-42; de- 
signed electric telegraph, 1832; applied for patent, 
1837; first line completed between Baltimore and Wash- 
ington, 1844; died at New York City, April 2, 1872. 

Goodyear, Charles. Born at New Haven, Connec- 
ticut, December 29, 1800 ; began experiments with rub- 
ber, 1834 ; secured patent, 1844; died at New York City, 
July 1, 1860. 

Ericsson, John. Born in parish of Fernebo, Werm- 
land, Sweden, July 31, 1803; went to England, 1826; 
came to America, 1839 ; constructed caloric engine, 
1833 ; applied screw to steam navigation, 1836-41 ; in- 
vented turreted ironclad Monitor, 1862; died at New 
York City, March 8, 1889. 

Dahlgren, John Adolph. Born at Philadelphia, 
November 13, 1809; lieutenant in navy, 1837; assigned 
to ordnance duty at Washington, 1847; commander, 
1855 ; rear-admiral, 1863 ; took important part in naval 
operations during Civil War; died at Washington, July 
12, 1870. 

McCoRMiCK, Cyrus Hall. Born at Walnut Grove, 
West Virginia, February 15, 1809; invented mechanical 
reaper, 1831 ; died at Chicago, May 13, 1884. 

Howe, Elias. Born at Spencer, Massachusetts, July 
9, 1819; invented sewing-machine, 1844; died at Brook- 
lyn, New York, October 3, 1867. 

372 



Inventors 

Corliss, George Henry. Born at Easton, New 
York, July 2, 1817; invented Corliss engine, 1849; died 
at Providence, Rhode Island, February 21, 1888. 

Sholes, Christopher Latham. Born at Moores- 
burg, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1819 ; state senator, 
Wisconsin, 1848, 1856-58 ; held many positions of trust 
in Milwaukee, 1869-78; patented typewriter, 1868. 

Bell, Alexander Graham. Born at Edinburgh, 
Scotland, March 3, 1847; came to Canada, 1870, and 
to Boston, 1871; invented telephone, 1876; grapho- 
phone, 1883. 

Brush, Charles Francis. Born at Euclid, Ohio, 
March 17, 1849; graduated University of Michigan, 
1869; invented modern arc electric lighting; founder 
Brush Electric Company. 

Westinghouse, George. Born at Central Bridge, 
Schoharie County, New York, October 6, 1846; in- 
vented rotary engine at age of fifteen ; in Union army, 
1863-64; invented air brake, 1868; also inventions in 
railway signals, steam and gas engines, turbines, and 
electric machinery. 

Edison, Thomas Alva. Born at Milan, Ohio, Feb- 
ruary 11, 1847; established workshop at Menlo Park, 
New Jersey, 1876; invented megaphone, phonograph, 
aerophone, incandescent electric lamp, kinetoscope, and 
many other things. 

Wright, Orville. Born at Dayton, Ohio, 1871, 

Wright, Wilbur. Born at Dayton, Ohio, 1869. 



373 



INDEX 



Abbey, Edwin A., 117, 124. 
Adams, Edwin, 179. 
Adams, Herbert, 153. 
Addams, Jane, 223-224, 230. 
Agassiz, Alexander, 192, 225. 
Agassiz, Louis, 186-192, 193, 

201-202, 209-210, 211, 213, 

224. 
Alcott, Amos Bronson, 41-43, 

52. 
Alcott, Louisa May, 42-43, 52. 
Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 75- 

76, 82-83, 163. 
Alexander, Francis, 102-103, 

121. 
Alexander, John W., 119. 
Allen, James Lane, 33. 
AUston, Washington, 97, 99, 

121, 126. 
Anderson, Charles Joseph, 

174. 
Anderson, Mary, 174-175, 

183. 
Andrew, John A., 266. 
Anthony, Susan B., 271-272, 

289. 
Arnold, Benedict, 95. 
Astor, John Jacob, 294-297, 

324. 
Astor, William B., 296-297. 
Atwood, Elizabeth, 303. 



Audubon, John James, 186- 

190, 224. 
Austin, James T., 270. 



Bailey, Liberty Hyde, 212. 
Ball, Thomas, 136, 137-139, 

155. 
Bancroft, George, 34-36, 51. 
Barker, George Frederick, 212. 
Barlow, Joel, 329. 
Barnard, George Gray, 153, 

156. 
Barnum, Phineaa Taylor, 302- 

305, 314, 325. 
Barrett, Lawrence, 171-172, 

170, 183. 
Bartlett, Paul Wayland, 153. 
Barton, Clara, 277-278, 289. 
Beecher, Henry Ward, 252, 

254, 281, 287. 
Beecher, Lyman, 31, 252-254, 

269, 287. 
Bell, Alexander Graham, 328, 

356-358, 373. 
Bell, Alexander Melville, 357. 
Belmont, August, 323. 
Benjamin, Park, 74. 
Bennett, James Gordon, 47, 

309. 
Bergh, Henry, 278-280, 290. 



75 



Index 



Bessey, Charles Edward, 212. 
Bickmore, Albert Smith, 193. 
Bierstadt, Albert, 108, 122. 
Boone, Daniel, 100. 
Booth, Edwin, 118, 157, 158, 

160-164, 166, 168, 169, 171, 

172, 173, 176, 182, 183. 
Booth, John Wilkes, 161. 
Booth, Junius Brutus, 158- 

162, 177, 182. 
Boyle, John J., 153. 
Brooks, Phillips, 281-282, 

290. 
Brown, Henry Kirke, 113, 

132-133, 145, 146, 154, 155. 
Brown, John, 262, 272-276, 

289. 
Brown, Nathan, 313. 
Brush, Charles F., 358-359, 

373. 
Brush, George de Forest, 119. 
Bryant, William Cullen, 55- 

58, 80. 
Bundy, Benjamin, 264. 
Burke, Charles, 179. 
Burr, Aaron, 97, 98. 
Burr, Theodosia, 97. 
Burroughs, John, 211-212. 

Cable, George Washington, 33. 
Caffin, Charles C, 17. 
Calhoun, John C, 130, 134, 

135. 
Campbell, Archibald, 257. 
Carnegie, Andrew, 246-251, 

287. 
Cary, Alice, 76. 
Cary, Phcebe, 76. 
Chamberlain, Thomas C, 204. 
Channing, William Ellery, 



254-256, 259, 260, 262, 270, 

288. 
Child, Lydia Maria, 261-262, 

288. 
Church, Frederick Edwin, 107- 

108, 122. 
Clapp, Henry Austin, 18. 
Clark, Alonzo Howard, 193. 
Clay, Henry, 265. 
Clemens, Samuel Langhorne, 

32-33, 50-51. 
Clemm, Virginia, 68, 81. 
Coffin, Thomas, 257. 
Cole, Thomas, 105-107, 108, 

122. 
Cooper, James Fenimore, 24- 

27, 31, 50, 85, 127. 
Cooper, Astley, 205. 
Cooper, Peter, 235-237, 242, 

286, 307. 
Cope, Edward Drinker, 200- 

201, 226. 
Copley, John Singleton, 86- 

87, 94, 120. 
Corliss, George Henry, 352- 

353, 373. 
Cornell, Ezra, 239-241, 242, 

286. 
Crawford, Thomas, 131-132, 

154. 
Curtis, George William, 46, 

53. 
Cushman, Charlotte, 144, 157, 

166-168, 172, 182. 
Cushman, Susan, 168. 

Dahlgren, John Adolph, 347- 

348, 372. 
Daly, Augustin, 172, 176, 177, 

183, 184. 



376 



Index 



Dana, Charles Anderson, 47. 
Dana, James Dwight, 202- 

203, 226-227. 
Davenport, E. L., 176-177, 

184. 
Davenport, Fanny, 177, 184. 
Day, Jeremiah, 218. 
Dix, Dorothea Lynde, 259- 

261, 288. 
Douglass, Frederick, 273, 275. 
Drake, E. L., 355-356. 
Drake, Joseph Rodman, 56. 
Draper, Henry, 195, 199. 
Draper, John William, 194- 

195, 225. 
Drew, John, 176, 184. 
Drew, Mrs. John, 184. 
Durand, Asher Brown, 104- 

105, 107, 108, 122. 
Dwight, Timothy, 218, 219, 

229. 

Edison, Thomas A., 328, 361- 

367, 373. 
Edwards, Jonathan, 219-221, 

223, 229. 
Eliot, Charles William, 215- 

218, 229. 
Elwell, Frank, 153. 
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 44- 

45, 52, 58-59. 
Ericsson, John, 344-347, 372. 
Ericsson, Nils, 344. 
Everett, Edward, 215. 

Farragut, David Glasgow. 

149, 345. 
Field, Cyrus West, 307-309, 

325. 



Field, Eugene, 76, 83. 
Field, Marshall, 323. 
Fiske, John, 40. 
Florence, William J., 169-170, 

183. 
Forrest, Edwin, 157, 158, 164- 

166, 167, 169, 170, 179, 182. 
Fox, John, 33. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 89, 94, 

197, 208, 328, 339. 
Freeman, Mary Wilkins, 34. 
French, Daniel Chester, 150- 

151, 156. 
Freneau, Philip, 56. 
Fulton, Robert, 328-332, 345, 

371. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 61, 

261, 262-207, 208, 269, 271, 

288. 
Gilder, Richard Watson, 76. 
Girard, Stephen, 97, 164, 231- 

233, 286. 
Glasgow, Ellen, 34. 
Goelet, Robert, 323. 
Goodyear, Charles, 339-344, 

372. 
Gould, Edwin, 317. 
Gould, Frank, 317. 
Gould, George, 317-318. 
Gould, Helen Miller, 312. 
Gould, Howard, 317. 
Gould, Jay, 310-312, 317, 325. 
Grant, uiysses S., 49, 300- 

311. 
Gray, Asa, 193, 194, 212, 213, 

225. 
Gray, Elisha, 356. 
, Greeley, Horace, 46-49, 53. 
Greeley, Zaccheus, 47. 

377 



Index 



Greenough, Horatio, 90, 125- 

129, 130, 131, 134, 154. 
Guyot, Arnold, 209, 213, 228. 



Hale, Nathan, 152. 

Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 56. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 293. 

Harding, Chester, 99-102, 103, 
121, 133. 

Harriman, E. H., 321-324, 
326. 

Harriott, Frederick C, 183. 

Harrison, William Henry, 48. 

Harte, Bret, 33. 

Hartt, Charles Frederick, 193. 

Haseltine, Anne, 256. 

Havemeyer, Frederick Chris- 
tian, 301. 

Havemeyer, William Freder- 
ick, 301-302. 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 27-30, 
31, 50, 59, 69, 85, 130, 139, 
144. 

Hawthorne, William, 28. 

Hayne, Paul Hamilton, 30, 77, 
78, 84. 

Henry, Joseph, 197, 208-209, 
228, 234, 338-339, 356, 367. 

Henry, Patrick, 132. 

Heth, Joice, 302-303. 

Hildreth, Richard, 36. 

Hill, James J., 318-321, 323, 
326. 

Hitchcock, Edward, 203-204, 
227. 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 58, 
62-64, 81, 87, 216. 

Homer, Winslow, 115-116, 
123. 



Hopkins, Johns, 237, 239, 242, 

286. 
Hopkinson, Francis, 89. 
Hosmer, Harriet, 143-144, 

155. 
Howe, Elias, 328, 350-352, 

372. 
Howe, Julia Ward, 76. 
Howe, Samuel G., 260. 
Howells, William Dean, 33. 
Hubbard, Elbert, 79. 
Hunt, William Morris, 112, 

113-114, 123. 
Hyatt, Alpheus, 193. 

Inman, Henry, 103-104, 121. 
Inneas, George, 108-110, 116, 

122. 
Irving, Washington, 20-24, 

36, 49-50, 97, 296-297. 
Irving, William, 20. 
laham, Samuel, 17. 

Jackson, Andrew, 107, 130, 

135-136. 
James, Henry, 33. 
Jarvis, John Wesley, 103, 121. 
Jefferson, Joseph, 18, 157, 

170, 178-180, 182, 184. 
Jefferson, Thomas, 98, 132. 
Johnson, Cave, 135, 337. 
Johnston, Mary, 34. 
Jordan, David Starr, 223. 
Jouett, Matthew, 103. 
Judson, Adoniram, 256-257, 

288. 

Kean, Edmund, 159. 
Keene, Laura, 179. 
Kellogg, Vernon L., 212. 



378 



Index 



Kensett, Frederick, 108, 110, 

122. 
Key, Francis Scott, 5G. 
Kimball, Edward, 283. 
Kingsley, James, 218. 

LaFarge, John, 17, 112-113, 

123. 
Langley, Samuel Pierpont, 

196, 226, 368. 
Lanier, Sidney, 77-78, 83. 
Le Conte, John, 210, 228. 
Le Conte, John Eathan, 210- 

211. 
Le Conte, John Lawrence, 211, 

228. 
Le Conte, Joseph, 210, 228. 
Le Conte, Lewis, 209-210. 
Lee, Robert E., 276. 
Leidy, Joseph, 201. 
Leiter, Levi, 323. 
Leslie, C. R., 117. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 12, 49, 72, 

138, 146, 149, 160. 
Lind, Jenny, 138, 302, 305. 
Lindsay, R. W., 302. 
Livingston, Robert R., 330. 
Long, Crawford W., 206, 227. 
Longfellow, Henry Wads- 
worth, 15, 28, 54, 58, 59-61, 

80, 85. 
Longworth, Nicholas, 146. 
Lorillard, Pierre, 323. 
Lovejoy, Elijah, 266, 270. 
Lowell, James Russell, 58, 

64-66, 81. 
Lyman, Theodore, 193. 

Macie, James. See Smithson, 
James. 



McCormick, Cyrus Hall, 348- 

350, 372. 
McCosh, James, 219, 222, 230. 
McCullough, John, 170-171, 

173, 176, 183. 
Mackay, John W., 309-310, 

325. 
McMaster, John Bach, 40. 
MacMonnies, Frederick, 151- 

152, 156. 
Macready, William C, 165, 

167. 
Macy, John, 17. 
Mann, Horace, 213-214, 228- 

229, 260. 
Mansfield, Richard, 180-181. 
" Mark Twain." See Clem- 
ens, S. L. 
Marlowe, Julia, 181. 
Marsh, Othniel Charles, 199- 

200, 226. 
Marshall, John, 130. 
Martin, Homer Dodge, 108, 

110-111, 123. 
Maverick, Peter, 122. 
Meade, Larkin G., 145-147, 

155. 
Merrill, Addison Emory, 193. 
Miller, Cincinnatua Heine 

(Joaquin) , 76. 
Millet, Francis B., 116-117, 

124. 
Mills, Clarke, 107, 133-136, 

154. 
Milmore, Martin, 151. 
Modjeska, Helena, 172-174, 

183. 
Moody, Dwight L., 282-285, 

290. 
Moran, Thomas, 108, 122. 



379 



Index 



Morgan, J. Pierpont, 315- 

316, 326. 
Morgan, Junius Spencer, 315. 
Morris, Clara, 18, 172, 183. 
Morris, Kobert, 292-293, 324. 
Morse, Edward Sylvester, 

193. 
Morse, Jedediah, 335. 
Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, 

99, 240, 328, 335-339, 372. 
Morton, W. T. G., 206-207, 

227-228. 
Motley, John Lothrop, 34, 37- 

38, 40, 51, 216. 
Mott, James, 257. 
Mott, Lucretia, 257-259, 261, 

262, 272, 288. 
Mott, Valentine, 204-206, 227. 
Murdoek, James E., 179. 
Murfree, Mary Noailles, 33. 
Muspratt, James Sheridan, 

168. 

Navarro, Antonio de, 183. 
Neagle, John, 103, 121. 
Neilaon, Adelaide, 176. 
Newberry, John Strong, 203, 

227. 
Newcomb, Simon, 197-198, 

226. 
Nilhaua, Charles, 153. 

Ogden, Francis B., 345. 
Orton, William, 338. 
Osborne, H. F., 201. 
Ossoli, Margaret Fuller, 43- 
44, 52. 

Packard, Alpheus Spring, 193. 
Page, Thomas Nelson, 34. 



Palfrey, John Gorham, 36. 
Palmer, Erasmus D., 136-137, 

139, 154. 
Parker, John, 267. 
Parker, Theodore, 267-268, 

269, 288. 
Parkman, Francis, 34, 39-40, 

51. 
Peabody, George, 237-239, 

242, 286, 315. 
Peale, Charles Willson, 90- 

92, 98, 120, 304. 
Peale, Rembrandt, 98, 121, 

304. 
Pelham, Peter, 86. 
Penn, William, 140. 
Phillips, Jolm, 269. 
Phillips, Wendell, 262, 268- 

271, 289. 
Pickering, Edward Charles, 

198-199, 226. 
Pierce, Franklin, 29. 
Plant, Henry, 147. 
Poe, Edgar Allan, 17, 27, 28, 

55, 58, 66-70, 76, 81-82, 85. 
Porter, Noah, 218-219, 229. 
Powers, Hiram, 129-131, 154. 
Pratt, Zadock, 310. 
Pray, Malvina, 169. 
Prescott, William Hickling, 

34, 36-38, 40, 51. 
Putnam, Frederick Ward, 193. 

Quincy, Josiah, 215, 217, 229. 

Rehan, Ada, 172, 175-176, 

183. 
Remsen, Ira, 222. 
Rhodes, James Ford, 40. 
Rider, Emory, 343. 



380 



Index 



Rider, Williams, 343. 
Riley, James Whitcomb, 76 

83. 
Rinehart, William H., 141- 

142, 155. 
Roberts, Marshall, 307. 
Robinson, Mariiis, 266. 
Rockefeller, John Davison 

243-246, 287, 354. 
Rogers, John, 142-143, 155. 
Rogers, Randolph, 140-141 

155. 
Ruckstiihl, Frederick, 153. 
Rutherford, Lewis MotIs 

195-196, 225. 

Sage, Russell, 305-306, 325. 
Sage, Mrs. Russell, 252, 306. 
Saint Gaudens, Augustus 

148-150, 152, 156. 
Salisbury, Rollin D., 204. 
Sanders, Sarah, 20. 
Sankey, Ira D., 284, 285. 
Sargent, John Singer, 117- 

119, 124, 163. 
Schurman, Jacob Gould, 223. 
Scott, Thomas A., 249. 
Scudder, Samuel Hubbard 

193. 
Seward, William H., 348. 
Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate 

193, 211, 228. 
Shaw, Robert Gould, 150. 
Sholes, C. Latham, 353-354 

373. 
Silliman, Benjamin, 202-203- 

204, 213, 218, 226, 227, 354 
Simms, William Gilmore, 30- 

31, 78-79, 84. 
Skinner, Otis, 181. 



Slater, John Fox, 241-242, 

287. 
Sloane, William Milligan, 40. 
Slocum, Margaret Olivia. See 

Sage, Mrs. Russell. 
Smithson, James, 233-234, 

286. 
Sothern, Edward A., 179, 181, 

185. 
Sothern, E. H., 181, 185. 
, Sparks, Jared, 36, 255. 

Stanford, Jane Lathrop, 243. 
Stanford, Leland, 242-243, 

287. 
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 258, 

272, 289. 
Stedman, Edmund Clarence, 

75-76, 82. 
Stewart, A. T., 299-301, 307, 

312, 324. 
Stimpson, William, 193. 
Stockton, Frank R., 34. 
Stockton, Robert F., 345. 
Stoddart, J. H., 18. 
Story, Joseph, 139, 140. 
Story, William Wetmore, 139- 

140, 155. 
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 31- 

32, 50, 254, 262. 
Stratton, Charles S. See 

" Thumb, Tom." 
Stuart, Gilbert, 90, 92-94, 

102, 103, 120. 
Stuart, J. E. B., 276. 
Sully, Thomas, 90, 96-97, 121. 
Sumner, Charles, 132, 260. 

Taft, Lorado, 17. 
Tappan, Arthur, 265. 
Taylor, Bayard, 73-75, 82. 



381 



Index 



Taylor, Moses, 307. 
Tenney, Sanborn, 193. 
Thomson, William, 357. 
Thoreau, Henry David, 45-46, 

52-53. 
Thumb, Tom, 302, 304-305. 
Timrod, Henry, 30, 77, 78, 83. 
Torrey, John, 193-194, 225. 
Townsend, James M., 354-356. 
Trent, W. P., 16. 
Trumbull, Jonathan, 94. 
Trumbull, John, 90, 94-96, 

104, 120. 
Tryon, Dwight William, 116, 

124. 
Tucker, George, 36. 

Vanderbilt, Cornelius, 297- 

299, 311, 317, 324. 
Vanderbilt, William Henry, 

298-299, 317. 
Vanderlyn, John, 97-98, 121. 
Van Dyke, John C, 17. 
Vedder, Elihu, 111-112, 123. 
Vining, Fanny Elizabeth, 177, 

184. 

Wanamaker, John, 312-315, 

323, 325. 
Ward, Henry Augustus, 193. 
Ward, J. Q. A., 144-145, 150, 

155. 
Warner, Olin Levi, 147-148, 

156. 
Warren, J. C, 207. 
Warren, Lavinia, 304-305. 
Warren, William, 177-178- 

179-184, 
Washington, Augustine, 303. 
Washington, George, 12, 23, 



90, 91, 93, 94, 127, 128, 1.30, 

132, 133, 134, 138, 293, 302, 

303. 
Webster, Daniel, 130, 135. 
West, Benjamin, 87-90, 91, 

92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 120, 

121, 151, 329. 
Westinghouse, George, 359- 

361, 373. 
Wharton, Edith, 34. 
Whistler, James Abbott Mc- 
Neill, 114-115, 123. 
White, Chandler, 307. 
White, Stewart Edward, 34. 
White, William, 89. 
Whitman, Marcus, 295. 
Whitman, Walt, 70-73, 82, 85. 
Whitney, Eli, 328, 332-335, 

339, 371. 
Whitney, Josiah Dwight, 203, 

227. 
Whitney, William C, 323. 
Whittier, John Greenleaf, 54, 

58, 61-62, 80-81, 263, 265. 
Wilder, Burt Green, 193. 
Wilkes, Charles, 202. 
Willing, Charles, 292. 
Wilson, Woodrow, 40, 223. 
Winsor, Justin, 40. 
Winter, William, 17, 18, 162. 
Winthrop, John, 28. 
Witherspoon, John, 219, 221- 

222, 2.30. 
Wright, Orville, 368-371, 373. 
Wright, Wilbur, 368-371, 373. 
Wyant, Alexander, 108, 110, 

123. 



Young, Charles Augustus, 196, 
225. 



382 



JUL 12 1910 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



